EIJ News Co-Adviser Sandra Gonzalez with Rigo Chacon. Delighted to chat with him about journalism at EIJ17

Excellence in Journalism ’17 may be over, but there is one night that a couple of dozen journalists are treasuring, after being treated to history, culture and poetry from a legendary newsman. Retired TV reporter Rigo Chacon gave a memorable toast before this crowd, as he strolled down memory lane.

It’s been several years since Chacon, the Emmy-award winning retired journalist attended a conference with the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, which was part of EIJ 2017 this year. Continue reading

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EIJ News Co-Adviser Sandra Gonzalez with Rigo Chacon. Delighted to chat with him about journalism at EIJ17

Excellence in Journalism ’17 may be over, but there is one night that a couple of dozen journalists are treasuring, after being treated to history, culture and poetry from a legendary newsman. Retired TV reporter Rigo Chacon gave a memorable toast before this crowd, as he strolled down memory lane.

It’s been several years since Chacon, the Emmy-award winning retired journalist attended a conference with the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, which was part of EIJ 2017 this year. In 2007, Chacon was inducted into the NAHJ Hall of Fame and recognized for his reporting career in San Francisco and his commitment to improving the Latino community. But now that he was in Anaheim, he had a surprise to share on the night traditionally known as the “Tejano Party”.

Usually the gathering of journalists from the conference will get together in a suite, hosted by a Texas delegation of NAHJ members. It’s been happening for decades. However, long ago, there was a toast, a brindis in Spanish, that was given in the wee hours of the morning, according to longtime NAHJ member and Corpus Christi Meteorologist Maclovio Perez.

The toast among friends, El Brindis del Bohemio, Perez says, was given by Chacon.

And now Chacon showed journalists in 2017, most who have never experienced this brindis at the conference, a glimpse into the Tejano party’s early traditions.

Stephen B. Shepard speaks truth to power at Society of Professional Journalists’ President’s Installation Banquet on closing night of #EIJ17. Photo credit: ellenlai for CUNY J-School

The Society of Professional Journalists recognized Stephen B. Shepard, Jerry Seib and Lawrence Pintak at the President’s Installation Banquet with its highest professional honor award: Fellows of the Society. Each distinguished individual received a jeweled key and plaque for their extraordinary contributions to the profession of journalism.

“Stephen Shepard was nominated for his remarkable contributions to journalism after many years as a practicing journalist and editor, and later the founding dean of the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism for eight years before retiring in 2013,” read the Society’s press release.

Despite the festive celebration, Shepard gave a thoughtful, thorough and sobering view on journalism’s past and future. The room of distinguished journalists listened closely; if not for Shepard’s voice, one could hear a pin drop. It would be a disservice to the journalism community to let Shepard’s words remain within the confines of platinum 2 banquet hall of the Anaheim Marriott.

“Thank you all very much for this terrific award. I’m especially honored to be sharing the stage with such wonderful journalists as Gerry Seib and Larry Pintak.

I want to say a few words about a problem in our profession that worries me, as I’m sure it worries you. And that is the low and falling levels of public trust in the news media. It would be easy to blame Donald Trump for our problems. He continues to label any story he doesn’t like as “fake news” and he has called the news media the “enemy of the American people.” His attacks are outrageous, of course, and they threaten to weaken our democracy and the media’s role in it.

But he is merely fanning flames that have been raging for years. According to Gallup, trust in the news media has declined steadily since it peaked in 1976 at 72%. It has been below 50% for the last decade. And just before the election last year trust in the media hit 32%, an all-time low. Among Republicans it was just 14%.

Like many of you, I have struggled to understand why the profession we revere so much is so mistrusted by so many people. As far as I can tell, there are two major reasons for the distrust. One is the perception that we are biased politically, a view held most avidly by conservatives, who have been told for years by talk radio and Fox News that we’re just the so-called liberal media.

But bias is hard to prove. The few academic studies that have been done tend to show that bias is often in the eye of the beholder. If you’re a conservative, you tend to see liberal bias. If you’re a liberal, the coverage looks right-wing. And the deeper your conviction, right or left, the deeper your perception that things are biased against you. Maybe that’s just human nature.

But there is a second reason for the lack of trust, a reason that makes more sense to me. Many people believe that the mainstream news media is elitist. And by mainstream media, I think they mean the big-city newspapers, the TV networks, the leading magazines, and perhaps even the journalism schools. They charge that we ignore the concerns of everyday folk, that we tend to look down at the average Joe or Jane, that we are just coastal snobs who regard the rest of America as fly-over country.

And that our news coverage reflects this bias: We cover lacrosse, surely an elite sport, while largely ignoring stock-car racing, which attracts millions of fans. We regularly cover the Ivy League and other elite colleges, but rarely examine community colleges, which enroll nearly half of all undergraduates. We write about income inequality as an economic problem, but hardly ever look at its victims or their communities in working-class America. We cover advanced medical research at our finest big-city hospitals but we didn’t understand the causes of the emerging opioid epidemic on the streets of Albuquerque, Louisville, or the rest of Middle America.

Is it any wonder that we in the mainstream media missed the story of the angst in America’s heartland? Is it any wonder that we were thus stunned when Trump won the election? Hillary Clinton didn’t go to Michigan or Wisconsin, but neither did mainstream media. We just didn’t know what was happening on the ground in many battleground states. Yes, we blew it – not just because our polling was wrong , but because our reporting was negligent.

In the past, we might have relied on our strongest regional newspapers, like the Des Moines Register, the Detroit Free Press, or the Milwaukee Journal, to provide substantial reporting in the Mid-West. But those papers have suffered substantial cutbacks in circulation, coverage, and staffing. Or we might have read prescient trend stories in our three national newsmagazines – Time, Newsweek, and US News – but two of them are essentially gone and the other one is a shadow of its former self. It’s true that we have fresh coverage from new outlets – such as Politico, Pro Publica, Buzz Feed, Huffington Post or the Texas Tribune, but they’re not yet widespread enough to offset the closed bureaus and cutbacks in mainstream media.

Our profession must find a better way to cover Middle America, blue-collar America, working-class America – whatever you want to call it. We needed to widen our gaze, hire more reporters from diverse economic and geographic backgrounds, and change whatever elite attitudes exist in our newsrooms. None of this will be easy at a tough time for journalism. But we have no choice. If the problem is indeed elitism in mainstream media, it’s long past time we got over it.

I’m sorry if my remarks are a bit of a downer on this festive evening. I am thrilled to be with you and grateful for this honor from SPJ.

Thank you! On with the show!”

“Stephen B. Shepard is the Founding Dean Emeritus of the Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York. Prior to that, he was a senior editor at Newsweek and editor-in-chief of Business Week,” Shepard wrote in an email.

]]>http://www.eijnews.org/2017/09/12/cuny-graduate-school-of-journalisms-founding-dean-stephen-b-shepard-brings-sobering-view-to-spjs-presidents-installation-banquet/feed/0Analyzing the data behind EIJ Newshttp://www.eijnews.org/2017/09/11/analyzing-the-data-behind-eij-news/
http://www.eijnews.org/2017/09/11/analyzing-the-data-behind-eij-news/#respondMon, 11 Sep 2017 07:04:51 +0000http://www.eijnews.org/?p=5232After the excitement of the 2017 Excellence in Journalism conference had wound down, EIJ News Interns embarked on one final assignment–digging through the data.

Twitter Analytics show the EIJ Twitter account produced over 51,000 Tweet impressions and 3,400 profile visits during the 2017 conference.

The EIJ News interns tap-tap-tapped their fingers through many live-Tweeting sessions on the EIJ Twitter account to crank out a total of 176 tweets during the conference. Their efforts produced over 51,200 Tweet impressions, an increase of more than 3,700 percent compared to the previous month, according to Twitter analytics.

The EIJ News Twitter account received 3,400 profile visits, an increase of over 500 percent from the previous month. Additionally, the Twitter account welcomed almost 150 new followers and just over 120 mentions from engaged users.

Twitter users tweeted using #EIJ17 at least 11,600 times between Sept. 5-11.

The 10 EIJ News interns produced 43 stories in just four short days. Stories covered topics ranging from conference sessions, events and attendees to pressing issues like DACA and Hurricanes Harvey and Irma.

Page views on the EIJ News website peaked on Sept. 9. Over the duration of the conference, it experienced a total of 1,300 page views from 685 individual users.

Many users (37 percent) came directly to the EIJ News website while others (18 percent) wandered to the site via Twitter and close to 14 percent through the EIJ News Facebook. 13 percent found their way to the page organically through a Google search.

The Society of Professional Journalists held its closing dinner at the Excellence in Journalism conference with a strong statement defending journalism. The society awarded journalists from around the country for their contributions to ethics, scholarship, preparing the next generation, and government accountability.

Grace Rauh, a political reporter at Spectrum News NY1 won the Sunshine Award for her investigative reports on New York City mayor Bill de Blasio. The Sunshine award recognizes journalists for their important contributions in the area of open government.

Rauh is the lead plaintiff in an ongoing lawsuit titled Rauh v. de Blasio. She has been investigating New York mayor Bill de Blasio’s private consultant operations for over two years. De Blasio had hired people who were independent of the city for campaigning and program promotions who essentially began to be treated like city employees.

“The Sunshine Award is for us [SPJ], and specifically even for me,” said outgoing SPJ President and investigative executive producer Lynn Walsh, “something that is very important because journalists are doing this every day. We have to hold the government accountable, we have to ask questions.”

“It feels very important, it’s been a defining story of the mayor’s tenure at City Hall,” said NY1’s Grace Rauh, “and it’s also led to changes in the way the state defines lobbying. In the wake of my reporting, the state of New York broadened its definition of lobbying to include consultant like the ones that are close to the mayor.”

Rauh made a simple request for the release of the city government’s emails regarding the mayor’s consultants, but her requests were ignored and denied.

“I began to investigate the mayor and people with private interest of their own that led me to doing some big investigative stories but also to file a freedom of information act requests seeking emails between the mayor and his outside advisors.”

The Spectrum News NY1 newsroom is proud of the work Rauh is doing to bring government transparency to New York’s City Hall.

“Through determination, skill and a veteran’s eye for the truth, Grace uncovered one of the major stories of the de Blasio administration,” Senior Director of News at Spectrum News NY1 Anthony Proia said. “Her reporting continues to drive coverage of City Hall and inform regular New Yorkers about the highest echelons of New York City politics.”

Rauh won the lawsuit, which is now known as the ‘Agents of the City’ suit early in 2017, but the city appealed the ruling. At the time, the emails were released heavily redacted with black lines on nearly every other sentence. Rauh read what she could of some emails on the air on Inside City Hall with Errol Louis on NY1. The lawsuit is ongoing.

“This award really highlights the work that those people do to try to break through the barriers that exist and those ‘no’s’ that you get so that we can tell the public what they want,” said Walsh. “To honor someone who has not only gone through that first step of filing that public records request but then now continues to fight it, for something as basic as emails, that’s what we want to highlight.”

Rauh says she is honored to have been selected for the Society of Professional Journalists’ prestigious national award.

“It’s the first time I’ve actually won a national award. It feels like a huge deal,” Rauh said. “I think it’s very important in all levels of government for reporters to be fighting for transparency and to make sure we hold public officials accountable and make it clear that the people inside city government need.”

Pam Baker is a freelance journalist on the big data beat. She contributes to PC Magazine and a variety of tech media outlets. Her session at EIJ 2017 focused on rapid response protocol in news rooms when dealing with continuously flowing data to find relevant background and contextual information.

Baker shared her knowledge for aspiring data journalists looking to get into the field.

EIJ: In the simplest terms, what is data journalism?

Pam Baker: Data journalism is the evolution of journalism. It is the same thing we have done since journalism existed with is taking information and pulling out of that, a story, worthy of the public’s knowledge so we take information and we make a news story that the public can use. Data journalism is just taking that to more extreme steps where we can consider more information than we could before through new technologies.

How important is it for journalists to understand data journalism?

It’s vital because journalism is getting ready to make a change – a disruptive change – and if you don’t have the data skills, you won’t be able to do any reporting and you won’t be able to compete. You might be able to do an occasional niche story that you just happen to be in the right place at the right time [for], but if you don’t have those skills then you’re not going to make it.

What do you say to someone who wants to get a start in data journalism but doesn’t really know where to start?

The best thing to do is to just dive in. So look at the tools available through journalism toolbox. Look at PC Magazine at my reviews of those tools. I’m not just touting my own work (it may sound like that but I’m not!) It’s just a good place to look for self-service applications that you can use and then just pull any public data set from Amazon Web Services or Google Public Data listed with mine and Wayne Rash’s talk with EIJ Conference. Any of those sources. Pull any public data and with a lot of these apps – it’s just drag and drop. It’s that easy. So you pull the data you choose to use and just run it, start asking questions and get your hands dirty.

If you get familiar with using data and putting it in and get familiar with the tools and the same tool does not fit everyone well. Some are very user-friendly which some advanced people find to be a pain but if you’re not used to data journalism and you’re just starting then you won’t think user-friendly. So choose the app that fits you best. Choose the public dataset, pull it into that app. A lot of it is just drag and drop. That’s all there is to it. Then ask questions of it. Maybe you pull environmental data from the [Environmental Protection Agency] or from Google Earth or whatever data you want to – health trends or environmental and anything and ask good questions through that app until you get comfortable with it. And the next time you have a story and you’re under deadline – it’s so familiar that you can do it quickly and you know where it is. That’s the best way – to just jump in.

What ethical issues do journalists and editors need to consider when working with data?

Okay, while the tools are very sophisticated – the [business intelligence] apps and the analytics are very sophisticated, very good tools. There is still a lot of room for user error. If you don’t have the math skills and the like then you may have the wrong interpretation and you could hurt someone’s career or businesses’ value by putting the wrong thing. So, accuracy, as it has always is in journalism, is the number one concern and that’s both from an ethical point of view and the value of the reader point of view.

Can you give an example of how useful data journalism is becoming more useful but also where it might be faulty?

Look at the election and the polls. That’s data. Polling and polls and everyone thought Hillary Clinton would win and Trump would lose – and everyone screamed at the end of it: “How could the data be so wrong!?” Same thing happened with Google Flu Trends. How is it that the [Center for Disease Control] data was right and Google Flu Trends was wrong? You know Google is very strong in big data and data tools. Well, the answer to that is the same thing that has always been true throughout all of mankind is that every set of information is part of the story and not the whole story. That’s good news. That means that there’s always a role for journalists to make sense of the data. So where that particular journalist is strongest is in finding the real story and doing the homework to validate the information and where they’re weakest is where the journalist the weakest in using the tools.

]]>http://www.eijnews.org/2017/09/10/qa-data-journalism-for-newbies/feed/0Award-winning journalist teaches newbies MMJ survival skillshttp://www.eijnews.org/2017/09/10/award-winning-journalist-teaches-newbies-mmj-survival-skills/
http://www.eijnews.org/2017/09/10/award-winning-journalist-teaches-newbies-mmj-survival-skills/#respondSun, 10 Sep 2017 20:46:21 +0000http://www.eijnews.org/?p=5224Journalists with all levels of experience from student to pro packed a meeting room to hear tips on how to survive as a multimedia journalist.

Shooting, editing and reporting require skills that every multimedia journalist has, but KGTV’s Joe Little showed journalists how to be more creative.

Little said news reporting allows for more innovative shooting–something he did not think of until one of his professors at Syracuse University offered him some advice.

Little wanted to work for ESPN, but he says his professor told him, “‘You’re not going to do sports. Continue reading

]]>Journalists with all levels of experience from student to pro packed a meeting room to hear tips on how to survive as a multimedia journalist.

Shooting, editing and reporting require skills that every multimedia journalist has, but KGTV’s Joe Little showed journalists how to be more creative.

Little said news reporting allows for more innovative shooting–something he did not think of until one of his professors at Syracuse University offered him some advice.

Little wanted to work for ESPN, but he says his professor told him, “‘You’re not going to do sports. You’re going to do news. You’re going to go on the news path because there’s more opportunities to tell stories and cover a wider variety of things. There’s more to you than just sports.’”

Little’s said his background at George Mason University and Syracuse University prepared him to work in local news. He knew he wanted to work in a small market.

“In smaller markets, you’re forced to do a lot of work,” Little said. “Sometimes you’re doing two packages on two completely different subjects. You have to go learn your craft somewhere.”

Little said new reporters learn their craft in the smaller markets where they can take more chances and learn from their mistakes. When they move to a larger market, there’s more pressure.

“By the time you get up there, you have the skills in your toolbox. You have the tools to rely on, to count on and know that you can do the job,” Little said

Certain small news stations, such as WDVM, look for entry level journalists. Mark Kraham at WDVM in Hagerstown, Md. took a chance on Little in 2000. Kraham said Little was “greener than grass” when he first started but Kraham knew he would be destined for greatness.

“I can’t take the credit for his creativity. His inner talent was there. I saw it,” Kraham said.

After leaving Maryland, Little went to Pennsylvania and then San Diego, where’s he’s worked at KGTV since 2007.

In San Diego, Little won his first of many Emmy Awards. He also travels the country to teach journalists the art of storytelling. Journalists at EIJ were eager to hear Little’s secret to his news packages, but he simply said, “time management.”

“Time management leads to focus,” Little said. “You lose your time management because you are not focused. They lose their time management when they do not shoot with a focus. They lose their time management when they don’t write with a focus. So be focused and manage your time. If you do those things you’re going to have a great day.”

Little works the day shift at his station and says before he even starts interviewing he knows how he wants his story to go.

“Formulate the plan early. The plan may change, but at least you have a path to follow,” Little said.

From there he says he uses the “pregnant I” technique. It starts with a “character and ends with a character.” This allows you to humanize your story. Little says this technique is what is going to engage the audience.

“Introduce a character, a real human, someone that I can relate to,” Little said.

Little prefers not to use “man on the street” interviews and public information officers in his stories. Little says those interviews are not going to draw emotion from the audience and shouldn’t be included.

Being a multimedia journalist allows complete control over your story, which Little enjoys.

“I like to be in control of the entire project, “Little said. “I like to be in charge of the visuals. As I’m shooting, I’m writing.”

Little says he does not see himself leaving San Diego.

“I want to get to the point where when people think San Diego they think Joe Little”

She walked the audience through a number of exercises, including jumping jacks for blood circulation, massaging the cheeks, loosening the jaw and sticking out the tongue.

“You have to be willing to be silly,” Tardif said.

To tackle the next issue, NBC10 anchor and reporter Tracy Davidson discussed breathing techniques and ways to stay focused. She talked about the benefits of daily mediation to train the mind to stay concentrated, and she also asked the audience to pay close attention to the movement of their breath.

“Breathing across the chest,” Davidson said, “you’re not getting everything you need for fully supported speaking.”

Instead, she said, inflate the belly when drawing a deep breath to use the diaphragm. This supports better speech habits. Davidson mentioned a few exercises that can train this skill, like holding one note for a long time.

George Bodarky is the news and public affairs director at WFUV FM, an NPR affiliate. He also teaches at CUNY’s Graduate School of Journalism and is well-known for vocal coaching and training.

“We need to work really hard to sound natural,” Bodarky told the audience. “And that sounds like an oxy-moron, right?”

He invited audience members to come to the front of the room and practice reading a short script into the microphone. After hearing the script the first time, Bodarky assigned an exercise: if the person was too timid or too quiet, he might ask them to shout the script angrily. If they read the script too quickly, Bodarky insisted that they read it again with a slow Southern drawl. For one participant who seemed nervous, Bodarky asked the man to reread the lines while laughing, trying to relax.

After performing their assigned exercise, each participant read the script again in their natural voice. Every time, there was noticeable improvement.

“I think that vocal performance, if anything, is like a puzzle,” Bodarky said. “You have all of these different pieces — you need to put it together.”

Incoming President Lynn Walsh poses with her gavel at the 2017 president’s installation banquet.

Reiterating her goal to improve community outreach and speak to political groups, primary schools and secondary schools around the U.S., new President Rebecca Baker told Society of Professional Journalist members that they are “stronger together.”

“But together,” she said, “we can make journalism great again — and again, and again, and again.”

Baker, who ran unopposed in elections at the 2016 Excellence in Journalism Conference in New Orleans, received the president’s gavel at the installation banquet that concluded the 2017 conference. In a Q&A with the EIJ News Team, Baker said outgoing president Lynn Walsh’s focus on communication within SPJ was “very much needed” and will benefit her goal.

Quoting the film “A League of Our Own,” Baker said the difficulties the media face, whether the public’s perception or financial strain.

“The hard is what makes journalism great,” she said. “And SPJ, as I see it, is to make the hard a little easier and to help journalists make their work great.”

Baker, according to the SPJ website, is the organization’s 101st president. Working as deputy head of news at the New York Daily News, Baker is the first national president from New York City in 35 years.

Baker hopes to see the organization visit 100 schools throughout the next year through the Press for Education Project, a new SPJ initiative.

Challenging every SPJ chapter to reach out to their community, whether through a town hall or through visiting local high schools, Baker said speaking to community members about their trust — or distrust — towards the media is crucial to understanding, and possibly changing people’s mindsets.

“Maybe we’ll inspire some kid in the class to be a journalist,” Baker said. “Or at the very least, maybe we’ll give them a little bit of understanding about how news is produced, written, broadcast, created.”

Aside from visiting schools, Baker said she hopes to form greater interaction among committees through the creation of an outreach committee. Each outreach committee member represents a major pre-existing committee such as FOIA or education and is headed by an academic.

Committee members, Baker said, will find ways the various SPJ communities can reach out to the public.

“For too long, those committees have worked in silos,” she said. “Some things those committess still have to do individually … But there are many, many ways these committees can work together.”

In her final moments as president, Lynn Walsh, investigative executive producer at NBC 7 San Diego, recalled phone calls she received from reporters around the nation asking how to handle mockery on Twitter and cries of “fake news” from government officials. During one phone call, she said, a reporter commented that Walsh must be in the “worst time” to be president.

To that, Walsh said, she responded: “not at all.”

Walsh said in her final speech that she most enjoyed reaching out to non-journalists, as well as helping journalists approach difficult — and sometimes contentious — subjects.

“This position is meant to represent, then protect, journalism, and we need that more than ever,” Walsh said.

Although she called “fake news” a “very dangerous” concept that deserves the society’s attention, she, like Baker, urged her fellow SPJ members to reach out to their communities to hold discussions on how journalists gather news, as well as explain journalists’ news values.

“A majority of people in our communities don’t understand what we do, and why would they?” she asked. “We have hidden it for the most part behind this curtain, and we need to remove the curtain.”

Baker will lead the organization until the 2018 conference in Baltimore, set for Sept. 27-29, 2018.

]]>http://www.eijnews.org/2017/09/10/make-journalism-great-again-rebecca-baker-takes-president-post/feed/0Stacie O. Johnson’s Family Home in Path of Irmahttp://www.eijnews.org/2017/09/09/stacie-o-johnsons-family-home-in-path-of-irma/
http://www.eijnews.org/2017/09/09/stacie-o-johnsons-family-home-in-path-of-irma/#respondSun, 10 Sep 2017 04:31:04 +0000http://www.eijnews.org/?p=5140Students at the Excellence in Journalism Conference 2017 deep dive workshop with award-winning journalist Boyd Huppert experienced a range of emotions as he rolled out one heart-warming story after another from his KARE11 of Minnesota Land of 10,000 Stories segment. It was too much for freelance journalist Stacie O. Johnson, who openly wept as she watched Huppert’s story about victims of Hurricane Harvey.

Johnson can empathize. She and her family moved from the Middle East to Houston just in time for Hurricane Harvey, and now Irma is threatening her real family home in Florida. Continue reading

]]>Students at the Excellence in Journalism Conference 2017 deep dive workshop with award-winning journalist Boyd Huppert experienced a range of emotions as he rolled out one heart-warming story after another from his KARE11 of Minnesota Land of 10,000 Stories segment. It was too much for freelance journalist Stacie O. Johnson, who openly wept as she watched Huppert’s story about victims of Hurricane Harvey.

Johnson can empathize. She and her family moved from the Middle East to Houston just in time for Hurricane Harvey, and now Irma is threatening her real family home in Florida.

“We move every few years, so I have to make these places my home every time I leave,” Johnson said. “I was just meeting all these friends and we were starting to get together, and I’m feeling comfortable there, and then this happened. And all of those friends that I’ve met have flooded homes and are being displaced and everybody’s leaving.”

Johnson said she has survivors’ guilt because her rental house didn’t flood. Feeling the need to help, Johnson, her husband and two daughters made 140 lunches and passed them out to their neighbors because that’s “the least you could do.”

And now Hurricane Irma is headed for her family home in South Florida.

“So, we’re just sitting here watching kind of helplessly as the only home I really call home in South Florida might not be there. We might not have a home to return to and will just keep moving around I guess.”

Irma, the Burbank wildfires, and other oncoming natural disasters create an urgent need for good climate journalism. When it comes to environmental reporting, translating the science is tough but that doesn’t mean journalists can’t tell the human side of the story.

Reporting on climate is just as much of an art as it is a science. In other words, telling the human side of the shifting climate and keeping track of the facts go hand in hand.

Just as important is acknowledging the audience – even if they don’t believe in climate change. Being up front is key when addressing the science of climate.

For this episode of Pressing Issues, Pablo Arauz Peña speaks to two climate journalism experts about best practices when it comes to environmental reporting.

Nine of the incoming board members at Saturday afternoon’s SPJ business meeting

A bylaw change that called for shrinking the board of directors from 23 positions to nine passed with 86 yeas and 14 nays after a contentious debate by delegates. The transition will take place over two years. The new board members who were elected today will serve their entire term.

Those who opposed the bylaw change raised concerns that shrinking the board to nine members would decrease the chance of having a diverse board.

“We need a voice at the table,” said Rebecca Aguilar of the Fort Worth Professional Chapter, citing lack of diverse representation at the regional level. “Looking at the new board, we see that some voices are not even on the board.”

Irwin Gratz, a member of the SPJ Governance Task Force, was an advocate of the bylaw change.

“I appreciate that many of us do desire representation on SPJ’s governing council, but I’m going to make a point that I don’t think the standing size of the board is going to accomplish that,” he said.

After much discussion, Resolution No. 2, which called on journalists to oppose government public information officers and mandated clearance culture, passed with the exclusion of a single paragraph that was tabled until the next SPJ national conference in 2018.

With an Insta360 Camera on his iPhone, Robert Hernandez, a Digital Journalism Professor at USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, kicks off the Geek Out! session | Photo by Elena Piech

Geek Out! Latest Gadgets Apps and Technology is an annual session where moderators and attendees get the chance to “Geek Out” over emerging technologies newsrooms and independent journalists can use. Tech gadgets related to 360 video and social media editing were the main focus of this year’s session.

Pannellum

Benefits: This free tool is great for journalists who want to learn more about simple ways to create an immersive environment.

Wibbitz

Description: Wibbitz is a news company that uses an RSS feed to turn print stories into videos with music and text.

Price: Newsrooms can either pay to use Wibbitz or they can choose to accept commercials at the start of their videos.

Benefits: These videos with text and music can be created automatically or users can customize everything, such as the layout and font choices. Wibbitz uses a simple drag and drop interface and users can put licensed clips on their videos.

Samson Go Mic Mobile Professional Wireless System

Description: This professional wireless microphone system connects to smartphones. This microphone can make mobile phones pro-level video camera that capture high definition audio.

In her last hours as the Society of Professional Journalists’ president-elect, Rebecca Baker discussed her plans for the organization with the EIJ News Team.

Tell us about your background with SPJ?

I joined the Connecticut chapter in the year 2000 first as a member, then as a board member. Then I became board secretary, and then I got a job in New York, so I joined the New York Deadline Club as secretary, and then I rose up to be awards contest chair, events chair, first vice president and then president of the deadline club. Continue reading

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Incoming President Rebecca Baker

In her last hours as the Society of Professional Journalists’ president-elect, Rebecca Baker discussed her plans for the organization with the EIJ News Team.

Tell us about your background with SPJ?

I joined the Connecticut chapter in the year 2000 first as a member, then as a board member. Then I became board secretary, and then I got a job in New York, so I joined the New York Deadline Club as secretary, and then I rose up to be awards contest chair, events chair, first vice president and then president of the deadline club. From there, I was encouraged to join the national board, and I became regional director for Region 1, which is the Northeast U.S. One out of six SPJ members do live in Region 1. From there I went, what it’s called, on the ladder: secretary-treasurer, president-elect and, tonight, president.

Tell us about the platform you ran on?

I ran unopposed for president-elect. My goal was then as it is now: outreach. The current president had a focus to improve communications, and that was something I very much supported … and that was very much needed.

Expand a little bit more on “community outreach.”

The question is how can the media gain and regain and retain the trust of the people we have and regain the trust of the people we lost. I think part of it is doing our job: going out and being an ethical reporter every day, reporting the news, reporting the facts, doing this passionately. But I also think there’s more that journalists can do, and more that SPJ as an organization can do.

I’ve started three initiatives. The one that I have created is an outreach committee, and it is chaired by a former academic. The members are representative of each of the six major committees in SPJ: FOIA, diversity, awards, journalism education, so on and so forth. One member of each committee is going to be on there, and it is essentially a coordinating committee … to identify ways SPJ can start an outreach effort — a community effort.

For example, is there something that our diversity committee and education committee can do together as an outreach project? For too long, those committees have worked in silos. Some things those committees still have to do individually. … But there are many, many ways these committees can work together. The outreach committee is going to help them with outreach.

The other part is that I’m going to challenge every chapter in SPJ to hold a town hall — a community forum — and to partner with a good government group like League of Women Voters or Common Cause, whatever good government group is in their area, and to make it a public forum, a public meeting to talk about the news.

Where do people get their news? What do they like, and what don’t they like? Was there something that caused them to mistrust the news? What do they think news can do to regain its footing if they think they’ve lost it at all? I think if each chapter takes it as a project, we’re going to have tremendous outreach, and it’ll show that SPJ is working to help strengthen the public’s perception of journalism.

The third thing is that our education committee is starting a project called Press for Education, and the Press for Education Project is a project where we are going to work with schools all over the country and have journalists — SPJ members — go into high schools and middle schools and maybe even elementary schools, some of the older kids, and talk about being a reporter or being an editor or being a photographer or being a web designer…

Maybe we’ll inspire some kid in the class to be a journalist, or, at the very least, maybe we’ll give them a little bit of understanding about how news is produced, written, broadcast, created. I think that, as a public education aspect, we already have several teachers who are opening up their classrooms who have some forward through our social media campaign, Press for Education, that are saying, ‘Yes, we really want you in our classroom.’ As we are taking off on this, we’re hoping it’ll be sort of a snowball effect and more and more will come. Our goal is to go into 100 schools throughout the next year, so here’s hoping.

Last night at the RTDNA ceremony, Jake Tapper said that this is the “golden age of journalism.” What are your thoughts on that?

I think journalism is seeing a golden age, especially in political reporting. This White House is unlike any other in our history. I think this White House is one of the “leakiest” that we’ve seen in a very, very long time, and reporters are uncovering more and more stories every single day.

I think journalism throughout the country continues to struggle financially. There are amazing, dedicated, hard-working reporters, editors, photographers, creators of words and images all over the place, and they’re working hard because there’s fewer of them. The great thing about SPJ is that, as hard as journalism can be, SPJ can make it easier. We’re offering the training, the networking, to help you get a job and keep the job. We’re championing ethics that will help foster and underpin the public’s trust in what our members and what all journalists do. I think this organization can play a significant part in that…

With all that being said, there are still young people becoming journalists and joining SPJ. What would you say to people just starting out in this field?

Keep at it — don’t lose faith. This is a hard job; it’s going to be long hours, especially early in your career. Your pay isn’t going to be great, but if you keep at it, it’s one of the most rewarding things you will ever do. Even if you don’t spend your career as a journalist — even if you do journalism for five years or longer or shorter than that, I think that you are contributing to a public service by being a journalist, and that’s something to always keep in mind.

Journalists are public servants who aren’t on the public payroll but are performing a public service every single day. Many times, we are also first responders, and we are seeing that with the incredibly brave and dedicated journalists in Texas and soon in Florida, and in all over the country when there’s disaster, natural or otherwise, happening. Journalists are putting their lives on the line, putting themselves in physical danger on a routine basis to report the stories. I think if the public realizes that and sees that, respect for the profession will grow.

Is there anything else that your organization should know about you?

I’m a career newspaperwoman, which is a rare commodity these days. I’ve put my entire life into newspapers, but of course, it’s a newspaper website or digital-first like every other organization today. We’re basically a website with a newspaper that goes along with it, and it’s a very exciting time. I’ve seen journalism change so much in my 20-odd years, some very odd years at times, and the times that we are in are just tremendous. Journalists have more access to information through the internet. Technology has improved phenomenally since I started as a reporter many, many years ago.

I think, as many other businesses, journalists definitely have to do more with less: less resources, less colleagues to help them. But I think the opportunities, especially for the young journalists, are there, and this new generation is so technologically savvy and passionate and dedicated, and I think that journalism is going to be in good hands.

White House correspondents had a candid conversation of what it means to cover the White House in the Trump age.

“I think we are living in challenging times,” said CNN Senior Correspondent Jim Acosta,”Forgive me if this sounds a little too much, but at times there are attempts to twist what is being said. Our sense of reality is being warped.”

Acosta was part of a super session at the Excellence in Journalism Conference in Anaheim, California. Columbia Journalism Review Editor-in-Chief Kyle Pope moderated the super session “Work in Progress: Pressing the President”, giving the audience an intimate look at the daily lives of journalists who cover the White House. CBS News Justice and Homeland Security correspondent Jeff Pegues, Bloomberg News White House reporter and White House Correspondents Association President Margaret Talev, BuzzFeed News White House correspondent Adrian Carrasquillo and Los Angeles Times Assistant Managing Editor for Politics Christina Bellantoni were also part of the session. These journalists were not shy about sharing their feelings on covering the Trump White House.

Pope opened the conversation noting recent coverage of the president’s mental health, combative style and the 2016 elections.

“Trump is a better story for journalism,” said Bellantoni about the election results. She says Trump boosted journalism into the forefront of the American public and said subscriptions to newspapers are up. She also said Trump in the White House gives journalists an opportunity to talk about politics differently than the old and comfortable ways.

Meanwhile, CBS News’ Pegues says that Russian intervention into America’s electoral process is a serious concern and that it must remain in the news until Special counsel Robert Mueller finalizes his investigation.

“We run into too many people these days who dismiss this story,” Pegues said.

The panel also focused on the repercussions of being called “fake news” by the president. Acosta said if you want to be liked, to choose another profession.

“It is not normal for a president to say journalists are the enemy of the people,” said Acosta. He says journalists should wear that as a badge of honor because journalists are not the enemy, but the voice of the people.

“So what I say to all the journalists who are in this room is to stiffen your spine; keep doing your jobs,” Acosta said.

Acosta noted the attacks on the media are indeed taking a toll on trustworthiness. He says this divisive culture can hurt people when dealing with major issues such as the recent hurricane readiness and recovery.

“Fake news can get pretty real when reality sets in,” Acosta said.

Pope asked the panel how they dealt with burnout in the workplace. Bellantoni responded she would have felt energized after returning to work from maternity leave having missed the first 100 days of reporting on the White House. She said that in 10 days’ time she was already exhausted.

“It’s something we have to think, do we want to take the abuse and endure?” Bellantoni said.

Carrasquillo of BuzzFeed shared the story of the harassment he endured from the public while covering the President.

“I went to look at my phone to check if what he was saying was true and these guys who were standing next to me started yelling at me ‘Oh look what he’s doing, he’s fact-checking him,’ as if fact-checking was something bad,” Carrasquillo said.

Student journalists are more vulnerable than ever before, and it’s time for professional media to step in and help, student press freedom advocates said during their Excellence in Journalism session Friday afternoon.

In an effort to give more authority to student media, the nationwide New Voices campaign is going state by state to help introduce anti-censorship legislation that will grant extra protections to student journalists.

“One of the keys to having this legislation in place is that it’s supporting students to get the kind of job training they need, but it also helps students — even those who won’t enter the journalism field — learn how to evaluate and analyze media in a world full of untruths,” said Sarah Nichols, president of the Journalism Education Association. “Students don’t get the experience they need if someone is telling them, ‘Here’s what you can do,’ ‘Here’s what you can’t do.'”

The New Voices movement was inspired by a success in North Dakota, where, in 2015, the state legislature unanimously passed a bill that ensured free-speech rights for journalism students in public high schools and colleges. Since then, four other states have passed similar legislation. Considering student press freedom laws which previously existed in California and Oregon, a total of eight states have now adopted such student protections.

“We’re struggling in several states where principals and school administrators are lobbying against this kind of legislation — many times they think it could be damaging for them, or they don’t want certain stories to be published,” said Frank LoMonte, director of the Joseph L. Brechner Center for Freedom of Information at the University of Florida.

“But it’s important to recognize that students are already seamlessly integrated in the media world today,” LoMonte said. “They aren’t just the future of journalism — they’re the present of journalism.”

To date, 16 states have active New Voices campaigns and are still in the process of moving legislation through state legislatures. The remaining 21 states have inactive campaigns or no campaigns at all.

(Megan Fromm, JEA Educational Initiatives Director)

The Student Press Law Center tracks state-by-state laws and pending campaigns, and Indiana, Washington and Missouri are considered the most likely to pass New Voices laws next. Although legislation can take years to pass — if they pass at all – Megan Fromm, JEA’s educational initiatives director, said progress is more likely to be made when the professional media supports the initiatives.

“When we look at the states where legislation was passed successfully, we see support from a wide variety of stakeholders, especially from the media,” Fromm said. “There has been a notable media absence when covering New Voices, and we want to see that change.”

Fromm said media professionals should consider publishing editorials about New Voices legislation and give more attention to the progress — or lack thereof — of state campaigns.

“We can’t afford to not have meaningful, substantial coverage of what’s happening,” Fromm said. “It’s the best thing journalists can do.”

Additionally, professionals are invited to serve as mentors for high school or college students as a part of the SPLC’s Active Voice program. Shine Cho, an intern at SPLC and former Active Voice fellow, said the program helps students better understand their First Amendment rights. By having access to mentorship from media professionals, Cho said students are also more equipped to take on more challenging stories at their schools.

“Students want to have your support, whether that’s by having it through from the work you publish, or from the mentoring you can provide,” Cho said. “Without it, we’re preventing students from being able to tell stories that need to be told.”

]]>http://www.eijnews.org/2017/09/09/press-freedom-advocates-encourage-media-professionals-to-support-new-voices-legislation/feed/0Upcoming Job Opening at Society of Professional Journalists for Journalist On Callhttp://www.eijnews.org/2017/09/09/upcoming-job-opening-at-society-of-professional-journalists-for-journalist-on-call/
http://www.eijnews.org/2017/09/09/upcoming-job-opening-at-society-of-professional-journalists-for-journalist-on-call/#respondSat, 09 Sep 2017 20:45:37 +0000http://www.eijnews.org/?p=5060A new Journalist On-Call position has been created by the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation. The SDX Board Voted 16-6 in favor of the pilot position. The position would pay up to $180,000, which includes advertising, travel, salary, and benefits.

SDX Board President Robert Leger explains the role of the new “Journalist On-Call” position.

]]>A new Journalist On-Call position has been created by the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation. The SDX Board Voted 16-6 in favor of the pilot position. The position would pay up to $180,000, which includes advertising, travel, salary, and benefits.

SDX Board President Robert Leger explains the role of the new “Journalist On-Call” position.

As he was honored for his contributions to journalism and maintaining a free press at the Excellence in Journalism conference, CNN chief Washington correspondent Jake Tapper urged a room of reporters to work hard to “earn back the trust of the American people.”

“Being under assault by lying Twitter trolls and hostile foreign governments and juvenile officials in our own countries doesn’t mean we lower our standards,” Tapper said in his speech. “That means we raise our standards. This is potentially — and I think probably — a golden age of journalism.”

Tapper received the John F. Hogan Distinguished Service Award, which the Radio Television Digital News Association awards yearly.

NBC Nightly News Anchor Lester Holt, who was unable to attend the awards ceremony because he was covering Hurricane Irma, was awarded the Paul White Award, RTDNA’s highest honor that recognizes lifetime contributions to broadcast or digital journalism.

“This is the pinnacle of journalism in the U.S.,” Kathy Walker, RTDNA chair, said. “We need to respect it and understand just how important it is to our freedoms — all of our freedoms — as Americans.”

Tapper said reporters should ensure they are being “equal opportunity skeptics” in their coverage or avoiding siding with partisan issues in their work and “cross every T and dot every I” before a story sees broadcast or publication.”

“As we stand up for facts and truth and basic human decency, we in the media now more than ever need to make sure that we are excelling at what we do,” he said.

Tapper has worked with CNN since 2013 and hosts The Lead with Jake Tapper, a one-hour weekday program that debuted in March 2013. Holt also hosts CNN’s morning show, The State of the Union. An author of three books, Tapper, who moderated two debates for the 2016 presidential election, has won awards for his coverage of the election on CNN.

Holt joined NBC as a reporter in 2000, hosting shows such as Dateline, Lester Holt Live and, later, the NBC Nightly News. He is noted as the first African American to be the lead anchor on weekday nightly newscast.

In his live-streamed message from Miami, Holt said reporters must understand the privilege of “having a front row seat” that comes with reporting; however, he said they must exercise caution and compassion when handling others’ stories.

“I’m reminded that so often we step into people’s lives in their darkest, most vulnerable moments,” he said. “Many of them will make news not for what they have done, but because of what they have suffered or witnessed or experienced.”

Standing in front of palm trees on a beach as the wind whipped his shirt, Holt said the “nature” of journalism is to “step into people’s lives” and then “rapidly step out.”

In the same vein as Tapper’s speech, Holt urged reporters to “tune out the noise” of people bashing the press.

“In our pursuit of answers and accountability by our leaders, we cannot slide down the dangerous slope of self-righteousness,” he said.

Previous Paul White Award recipients include Dan Rather, Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite, who was also awarded the John F. Hogan Distinguished Service Award.

From left to right: Michelle Philo, Sonya Quick, Juilet Murphy, Alan Gibbons and Julie Geisler discuss issues in the gender and leadership gaps.

From the shifting media industry that enlists fewer people who do more for less money to implicit biases that plague workplaces across the U.S., some women in journalism are still trying to navigate disparities in the industry affected by gender.

In a panel titled Closing the Newsroom Gender Pay and Leadership Gaps, author Jill Geisler warned female journalists against taking on extra work for no additional pay, such as serving on committees for diversity.

“My mantra is don’t do invisible work,” Geisler said. “That doesn’t mean ‘don’t do it;’ it means make certain that you report back to someone.”

Geisler, along with Sonya Quick, digital editor of Orange Coast; Juliet Murphy, an author and motivational student; Michelle Philo, corporate counsel at Adtile Technologies; and Alan Gibbons, OC editor-in-chief, discussed some male managers’ predisposition to labeling women who ask for a raise as “greedy” or “selfish.”

Murphy said by the time price negotiations begin, then the interviewee’s job has already been fulfilled, and the interviewer will try his or her best to accommodate the new hire as much as possible.

“I will try my darnedest to get that person because this is like a true love relationship,” Murphy said. “At that point, you’ve found the one and you want the person.”

Richard Chacón, executive news content director for WBUR in Boston, said he’s seen numerous job applicants underestimate their value as reporters in negotiations.

“Don’t give them the opportunity to come down from what they’re thinking of paying you for that salary,” he said.

Women are faced with issues such as navigating maternity leave, vying for promotions and scrounging for raises, sometimes coping with intimidation from older men.

Paired with that, Geisler said, the shrinking industry has weakened the possibility for journalists to remain in a steady job — a fact she described as a “double whammy. Instead, she said, management should offer opportunities for their employees to build an impressive résumé.

“A good manager who can’t give you money is going to give you feedback, training — all of those skills, and know that you may leave,” Geisler said.

The panel also touched on issues young female journalists face while searching for a newsroom job or standing up for themselves in their first job.

Geisler said young journalists are, for once, able to stand out because they are more well-versed in digital media.

“You used to be a junior version of what everybody in the newsroom knew, and that didn’t make you very valuable,” she said. “You’ll be more valuable for the gifts you bring.”

However, although the draw of a new career may be tempting, Raquel Maria Dillon, a digital producer with KALW in Oakland, Calif., said younger journalists should not be afraid to utilize company resources and ask for reimbursement on gas mileage.

“I’ve worked with young women who don’t file for mileage,” Dillon said, “and I feel that’s like leaving mileage on the floor. Unless it’s your passion project, you should be filing for that kind of small stuff.”

Dillon also urged younger journalists to avoid making their “hustle” look “effortless.”

“Make sure that people know how many hours you’re putting in,” she said.

“They don’t fully recognize what they’re bringing to the table, especially if they don’t come from diverse backgrounds,” he said. “They sort of just underestimate themselves and what they’re bringing to the newsroom and to the organization.”

Media representations of Native Americans are tangled in a butchered narrative of stereotypes that harken back to the roots of colonialism, say panelists at the “Understanding Native Truths” breakout session at the Excellence in Journalism Conference.

The tropes of poor savages and welfare alcoholics are perpetuated by dated ideas that demean thousands of indigenous groups existing throughout the country. These stereotypes often put native people in a handful of categories that journalists may fall into with their reporting.

For this episode of Pressing Issues — avoiding the inaccurate representation of Native American and Alaskan communities throughout history and in the present day with Crystal Echohawk — CEO of EchoHawk Consulting.

]]>http://www.eijnews.org/2017/09/09/pressing-issues-understanding-native-truths/feed/0SPJ committee to present resolutions at business meeting for debatehttp://www.eijnews.org/2017/09/09/spj-committee-to-present-resolutions-at-business-meeting-for-debate/
http://www.eijnews.org/2017/09/09/spj-committee-to-present-resolutions-at-business-meeting-for-debate/#respondSat, 09 Sep 2017 19:17:16 +0000http://www.eijnews.org/?p=5005At the final SPJ business meeting this week, the Resolutions Committee will present at least two issues to spark debate among delegates.

Sonny Albarado, chairman of the SPJ resolutions committee, said the committee has spent the last few weeks creating resolutions, ensuring they’re in the correct format and deciding if the issues are important enough to bring before the delegates.

The first resolution addresses the Trump administration’s efforts to undermine the legitimacy of the press.

“Basically, the resolution calls on other public officials and members of congress to remind the administration the importance of the freedom of the press,” Albarado said.

The second is a resolution about public information officers, also known as mediated access, an issue SPJ has worked on for a number of years, Albarado said. The SPJ website even includes multiple reports about PIOs.

“Years ago, it was a whole lot easier for a reporter to go and talk to the person who’s actually in charge of a particular issue in local government,” he said. “Now you cannot do that. You’ve got to go through the public information officer, and often you cannot even talk to that person. The information is just relayed to you from the public information officer.”

Albarado added that POIs lead to incomplete reporting or even hazardous situations.

“The [resolution] we’re going to present to delegates on Saturday asks reporters to make an even stronger effort to oppose having to only deal with public information officers,” he said.

The committee is asking journalists to tell their bosses, paper publishers, broadcast station owners, readers and listeners when they encounter a situation where the only source is a PIO.

“Tell them why it’s not a good idea that the only way you can get information, and therefore the only way the public can get information, is to get an official version of things from the public information officer,” Albarado said. “It’s a chilling effect on the freedom of speech.”

“What we’re hoping to do is address what we saw as an imbalance,” said Andrew Schotz, SPJ Awards and Honors Committee Chair. “There are many more student chapters than there are pro chapters.”

Currently, each SPJ region presents 12 chapter awards annually to professional chapters, covering topics from ethics to diversity. All student campus chapters within a region compete for a single “Outstanding Campus Chapter Award.”

“That didn’t sit right with some of us, but the problem is we can’t just start adding [awards],” he said. “We might have too much as it is. We didn’t want to tinker with it too much.”

The board has tentatively decided to add a “Best Program” award for student campus chapters and divide the single “Outstanding Campus Chapter” into two—a first place and runner-up, to allow two student chapters recognition at the regional level.

Schotz said the decision for the additional student chapter awards will not take place at this Saturday’s business meeting because the process is less formal and only includes regional directors.

“The chapter awards are something we review and give out as a group,” he said of the regional directors. “We’re just going to make sure we all agree on our final plan. If there’s any objections, we might tinker with it a little bit more.”

Triston Giesie and Jakob Rodriguez, both co-presidents of Texas State University’s student SPJ chapter, said the idea of additional awards was motivating to them.

“I’m about winning awards, honestly,” Rodriguez said.

Giesie explained that his chapter membership numbers have dwindled and their chapter is a shell of what it once was. The duo plans to work hard to improve membership and programming to hopefully win an award.

“We’re going to take this opportunity to be like a phoenix and rise from the ashes,” Giesie said.

Schotz emphasized that the regional directors are still considering this addition, and it’s not confirmed at this time.

“This may not be the final plan, but I have a feeling it will be the plan close to it,” he said.

Schotz said the regional directors may decide to confirm the addition of two new student chapter awards by this Sunday, Sept. 10.

Journalism is continually changing, and video is becoming more necessary. Journalists do not always create video, but when they do, that video is often used for social media. This Deep Dive Workshop provided hands on experience for journalists looking to enhance their skills with video.
]]>http://www.eijnews.org/2017/09/09/creating-a-video-at-the-i-dont-always-create-videos-breakout-session/feed/0Dunia Elvir’s Tips for Reportinghttp://www.eijnews.org/2017/09/09/dunia-elvirs-tips-for-reporting/
http://www.eijnews.org/2017/09/09/dunia-elvirs-tips-for-reporting/#respondSat, 09 Sep 2017 18:31:02 +0000http://www.eijnews.org/?p=5027Dunia Elvir of Telemundo 52 Los Angeles stopped by the #EIJ17 Newsroom and offered her advice for finding success in the newsroom and for reporting on natural disasters.

On standing out to audiences, Elvir said, “If you study your DMA (data and marketing association) and you know your DMA, you have that strength to the company that you’re coming (to). They’re going to pick you over the other person because you know who you’re serving.”

For reporting on natural disasters, such as Hurricane Harvey and Irma, Elvir said, “People don’t remember what you tell them. Continue reading

]]>Dunia Elvir of Telemundo 52 Los Angeles stopped by the #EIJ17 Newsroom and offered her advice for finding success in the newsroom and for reporting on natural disasters.

On standing out to audiences, Elvir said, “If you study your DMA (data and marketing association) and you know your DMA, you have that strength to the company that you’re coming (to). They’re going to pick you over the other person because you know who you’re serving.”

For reporting on natural disasters, such as Hurricane Harvey and Irma, Elvir said, “People don’t remember what you tell them. They remember how you make them feel when you tell them.”

On June 4 in Portland, Oregon, Alex-Jon Earl, a student news editor working for the Portland State Vanguard, was pepper-sprayed while covering a protest and counter-protest.

“Things got a little heated,” Earl said. After counter-protesters broke off to march away, Earl followed other reporters and was in turn followed by ACLU and National Lawyers Guild observers. As Earl fell behind to catch some footage, he received a frantic message from a few hundred yards away that one of his fellow reporters was being detained. Continue reading

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The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker

On June 4 in Portland, Oregon, Alex-Jon Earl, a student news editor working for the Portland State Vanguard, was pepper-sprayed while covering a protest and counter-protest.

“Things got a little heated,” Earl said. After counter-protesters broke off to march away, Earl followed other reporters and was in turn followed by ACLU and National Lawyers Guild observers. As Earl fell behind to catch some footage, he received a frantic message from a few hundred yards away that one of his fellow reporters was being detained. He ran to the scene and saw “a few dozen people being kettled by police,” including Anna Williams, one of his contributing writers. Williams was held and her license was photographed prior to her release.

Last month, The Freedom of the Press Foundation introduced a website to count press freedom violations. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker brings together 30 press freedom groups to create a centralized repository for research to help inform advocacy, journalism and legal action.

In 2017, there have been 20 arrests of US journalists, 12 searches and seizures of equipment, 16 alleged physical attacks on US journalists, and 4 border stops of US journalists.

“We at RTDNA are proud to be a founding participant of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. It is the archive of record of attacks on press freedom in America in the current divisive political and ideological environment,” Dan Shelley, incoming Executive Director of the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA), said.

“In a time when the important work of journalists is constantly under attack, especially by those in positions of power within the current White House administration, it’s essential for us to document and examine the challenges reporters face,” Sarah Nichols, President of the Journalism Education Association (JEA), tweeted. “The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is an important and necessary initiative to protect the work journalists do and an excellent resource in the classroom for discussion about press freedom with data and evidence to shape meaningful dialogue.”

In May, Montana GOP congressional candidate Greg Gianforte grabbed reporter Ben Jacobs and knocked him to the ground, said Fox News correspondent Alicia Acuna. Acuna said the violence “was so out of context for where we were. We weren’t covering a protest. We weren’t covering something where you knew at any moment that something could happen. We weren’t girded for it.”

In a portion of audio from Jacobs, published in The Atlantic, the candidate can be heard shouting, “I’m sick and tired of you guys! The last guy that came in here, you did the same thing! Get the hell out of here!” After winning the election, Gianforte apologized.

The Radio and Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) is celebrating a quarter-century partnership with the Radio in the American Sector (RIAS) Berlin Commission, an organization which serves as an exchange program between journalists in Germany and the United States.

The organizations met at #EIJ17 where RIAS Executive Director Erik Kirschbaum and alumni gathered to reminisce and network. They offered their unique perspectives to EIJ News about the neo-Nazi and white supremacist protesters who descended on Charlottesville, Va. which ended in one death.

“The big issue of Charlottesville is not necessarily what happened there,” said Kirschbaum. “It’s what the president said. Which was so unusual that the president seemed to show understanding for the neo-Nazis, whereas it’s not something you’d ever see in Germany.

The politicians in Germany were shocked that President Trump was talking about both sides. It’s not something anybody in Germany in their right minds would say,” Kirschbaum said.

The RIAS Berlin Commission, founded by former president George H.W. Bush was created during the Cold War in West Germany to strengthen relations and understanding between the two countries.

Alumni in the exchange program said it opened their minds to new ideas and different perspectives.

“It really broadens your horizons,” said Heather Sullivan, an anchor for WWBT in Richmond, Va. and a RIAS Berlin Commission alumna. “It broadens your awareness, it makes you more aware of what’s going on internationally, it gives you a much better understanding of the political issues between the United States and Germany, and really the entire world.”

Nazism in Germany today is treated very differently than in the United States. The history of National Socialism and the Holocaust are taught as part of the German curriculum in schools. Students visit a concentration camp or holocaust museum to learn history in a personal way.

Alexis Garcia, a producer at Reason magazine and a RIAS Berlin Commission alumna, says she witnessed the terrible violence in Charlottesville and believes RIAS helped her understand the conflict from a different perspective.

“Being part of this program kind of gave you a context for what this movement is about, what it represents,” Garcia said. “And in Germany, I think they have a very difficult task of how do we remember the past without necessarily celebrating or making sure that we don’t do something disrespectful that will give people the idea that this is something that could come back.”

Since the tragedy at Charlottesville this summer, terms like the “alt-right” and “white nationalists” are more prevalent than ever. The growth of these extremist groups comes with the need for more solid and accurate reporting.

For this episode of Pressing Issues, how do journalists address rising extremism all across the country? And how do we cover them without giving these groups too much publicity?

Sierra Hubbard sat down with Marc Lacey of The New York Times, Ryan Lenz of Southern Poverty Law Center and Rachel Glickhouse of ProPublica’s Document Hate project about best practices when it comes to covering hate.

]]>http://www.eijnews.org/2017/09/08/pressing-issues-covering-hate-in-hostile-times/feed/0CNBC Hosts Business Reporting Workshop to Recruit at #EIJ17http://www.eijnews.org/2017/09/08/cnbc-hosts-business-reporting-workshop-to-recruit-at-eij17/
http://www.eijnews.org/2017/09/08/cnbc-hosts-business-reporting-workshop-to-recruit-at-eij17/#respondSat, 09 Sep 2017 04:58:35 +0000http://www.eijnews.org/?p=4949NBCUniversal’s business network CNBC hosted a news cycle simulation workshop to teach attendees about the network’s daily operations. The fast-paced, hour-and-a-half breaking news workshop ended with a two-minute speed interviewing session for the Business News Associate program position at CNBC headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, N.J.

University of Houston graduate Ilse Hernandez is one of about 30 students selected for the workshop after a competitive process of interviews and a writing test. She says she applied hoping it would lead to a position at CNBC.

“It was a good learning experience because I want to be a producer,” Hernandez said.

CNBC vice president of talent development and senior executive producer Mary Duffy moderated a panel with some of the company’s experts, like Nasdaq reporter Bertha Coombs, assistant managing editor Ellen Egeth and editorial director of digital properties Matthew Rosoff. The panelists discussed their teams’ editorial processes, such as morning meeting pitches for the assignment desk, social media strategy and how CNBC merges television content with digital.

The workshop had attendees simulate a day’s news cycle. Teams of participants were paired with a member of the CNBC panel and they discussed breaking news stories of the day. Participants then pitched their stories to the panel, simulating the CNBC editorial process for multiple platforms.

Workshop attendee pitching a business story to a panel of CNBC professionals

Nicholas Kjeldgaard of NBC7 San Diego says the workshop was a great opportunity to hear from the producers and talent. “It’s a lot to learn about every single aspect of it,” Kjeldgaard said.” Not just the broadcast side but also the web and digital and social media.”

Ayanna Runcie, a recent graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism, says she wishes she had more time with recruiters. “I think the two-minute interview was great because she was very approachable and I was able to have a conversation. Only thing is I just wish it was longer,” Runcie said.

National Association of Hispanic Journalists President Brandon Benavides encouraged CNBC to bring the workshop to #EIJ17 to connect the company with diverse candidates.

“This is something that has been ongoing,” Benavides said. “I’m happy that they’re doing it. We are working to continue the partnership together.”

Duffy echoed Benavides’ commitment to diversity.

“We are proud to partner with NAHJ to help develop a diverse pipeline of quality journalists for CNBC,” Duffy said.

CNBC even brought out the carpet former president Obama walked on for his presidential debate, which Duffy said they now use to welcome other presidential candidates and CNBC Business News Associate attendees.

Left to right: Harriet Ryan, Matt Hamilton and Peter Pringle discuss their investigation of events that occurred before Dr. Carmen Puliafito’s resignation.

In publishing a series of investigative reports on a University of Southern California dean that brought his school reputation and revenue, five LA Times reporters did what the university and Los Angeles Police Department failed to do — publicly acknowledge the dean’s secret double life involving prostitutes and drugs.

Conducted by Harriet Ryan, Matt Hamilton, Paul Pringle, Sarah Parvini and Adam Elmahrek, the Times investigation revealed that Dr. Carmen Puliafito the dean of USC’s medical school partied and used drugs.

Ryan said Puliafito was crucial in helping the University garner resources and funds.

“He was more than just an administrator,” she said. “He was sort of the key person in their strategy to become a nationally known school.”

However, sources from USC told the team that university staff members previously raised concerns over Puliafito’s obsessive drinking, inappropriate comments and short temper and suggested he was unfit to continue as dean.

“One female employee was so taken aback by how he dressed her down that she went to the bathroom and vomited,” Hamilton said. “There were a lot of red flags that USC was aware about, but they continued to keep him on as dean for a second term.”

The Times was tipped off on Puliafito’s somewhat secretive habits in March 2016 and began filing Freedom of Information Act requests the next month. After the state government officials denied public records requests or university staff ignored them, the team turned to less traditional outlets: the Internet and social media.

Hamilton found a drug dealer who knew Puliafito by locating the dean’s Venmo account. He also found accounts on sites known for escort services. By the time the team received some public records, they had already made headway.

Then came the in-person interviews.

Warren eventually spoke to the Times after being persuaded by the Times’ team members and some of her friends. People who knew or said they ingested drugs with Puliafito gave the team photos and videos of him smoking out of a pipe or placing an orange ecstasy tablet on his tongue.

“This guy was so cocky … in the life that he led that he allowed himself to be photographed and videoed doing drugs,” Pringle said. “Eventually, we were able to persuade some people who have copies of those images to give them to us.”

Find someone with more experience in your newsroom to help walk you through the process. “If you just have ambition but you don’t have somebody to help form those ambitions, then it’s going to be almost impossible for you to become an investigative reporter,” Ryan said. “You have to work with people who are better than you.”

Know your state FOIA laws.

Become comfortable asking multiple people for the same records. “Sometimes an agency might have similar records so that they can go at it at a different angle,” Hamilton said.

Report government attempts to stonewall your research. “Once you hit a wall like that,” Pringle said, “you should do a story on the wall and let people know that these public officials … are engaging in this type of behavior.”

Whether you are covering a forest fire, a protest, a hurricane, or an earthquake, reporters can find themselves in dangerous situations. It’s a reality news crews, or journalists alone on assignment could face on assignment, and was the focus of a session Friday, “News Safety and Stress for Journalists: An Open Discussion” at the Excellence at Journalism Conference 2017 in Anaheim, California.

Here are some tips from KNX Radio’s 40 plus year veteran radio reporter, Pete Demetriou, for staying safe in the field:

Do realize that your life is more important than the story

Do scope out the area first in your car. Drive around the block four or five times before you get out and make sure it is safe

Do ask yourself: Do I feel comfortable getting out of the car here?

If you encounter tear gas or pepper spray do: Use this solution to help. Half saline solution or distilled water with half Johnson’s No Tears Baby Shampoo. Pour in your eyes until you can see clearly.

Avoid getting between the police and the protestors

Do consider the risk factor, assess the situation before you get involved, if it appears to be sketchy be prepared.

Do walk away if need be

If you are going to wear a bullet proof vest, do wear it under your clothing so as not to be a target.

Don’t stand down-wind from pepper spray or tear gas

Do keep your car pointed away from the danger and keep the engine running with the AC off

Do talk to others at work about the stress you have endured covering traumatic events

]]>http://www.eijnews.org/2017/09/08/dos-and-donts-for-covering-news-in-a-dangerous-situation/feed/0Conference attendees share their EIJ swag finds on social mediahttp://www.eijnews.org/2017/09/08/conference-attendees-share-their-eij-swag-finds-on-social-media/
http://www.eijnews.org/2017/09/08/conference-attendees-share-their-eij-swag-finds-on-social-media/#respondSat, 09 Sep 2017 00:19:56 +0000http://www.eijnews.org/?p=4916Want the 411 on this year’s Excellence in Journalism swag? See what’s up for grabs as conference attendees share their finds on social media.
[View the story “All About the Swag — EIJ Conference 2017” on Storify] Continue reading]]>Want the 411 on this year’s Excellence in Journalism swag? See what’s up for grabs as conference attendees share their finds on social media.

]]>http://www.eijnews.org/2017/09/08/conference-attendees-share-their-eij-swag-finds-on-social-media/feed/0Storytelling with just your phonehttp://www.eijnews.org/2017/09/08/storytelling-with-just-your-phone/
http://www.eijnews.org/2017/09/08/storytelling-with-just-your-phone/#respondFri, 08 Sep 2017 22:39:17 +0000http://www.eijnews.org/?p=4937A solo video journalist surprised a room full of colleagues by saying that he only shoots his news packages on his iPhone. It certainly inspired Javi Perez, a digital content producer at KENS 5 in San Antonio, Texas.

“It’s interesting that not more people know about it,” Perez said. “This is part of the revolution!”

Nick Castellucci, a professor of practice at Michigan State University, showcased episodes from, Phoning it in, a playful web-series on using cell phones to shoot news.

Castellucci focuses on using what he has available to him and says that news is moving in this direction.

“It’s the camera you will always have with you,” he said, pointing to his cell phone.

Castellucci prides himself on not being a technical reporter with a “less is more” attitude toward gear. His use of the iPhone with his improvised rig rose more out of need than technological advancement.

It’s just as much as using what is available to you as having the newest and best technology, Castellucci says. He had been shooting video for his former news station WFAA-TV in Dallas, Texas on an iPhone 5 and 6.

“When people ask me about the limitations to using a cellphone for photography, I tell them there are none,” he said.

When people complain about the zoom capabilities of the iPhone, Castellucci answers with, “I zoom with my feet.”

He started out covering news packages visually with his phone after working as a reporter for over 20 years.

“I always worked with photographers, some of the best for my stories, and I got sick of asking for a photographer to accompany me to stories, so I decided to start using my cell phone.”

“You kind of learn through osmosis from being around photographers so much,” Castellucci said.

Shooting with Castellucci’s homemade news rig for the iPhone is a constant process of plugging and unplugging cords. He plugs in an external Rhodes microphone to capture natural sound for his assignments. He also uses an XLR cable adapter to plug in a wireless lavalier microphone. The beast grip which is then attached to a full sized tripod allows him to hold the camera close to his chest with two hands.

“It’s rare if I shoot a clip that’s longer than two minutes. I shoot and move and shoot again. I usually end up with 40 clips,” Castellucci said. “I can do it with an iPhone but can I do it with one of their cameras? Not a chance!” he said.

He uses the settings on the iPhone to change exposure levels and adjust settings to get the perfect shot.

Castellucci does admit that he is excited for the new iPhone 8 to be released by Apple, and he has found previous solutions for the removal of the headphones jack from the iPhone 7 for example.

Journalists are using cell phones to conduct Facebook Live interviews so that viewers can watch the weather on their phones or even shoot and edit video in the field. The applications are endless, and for Castellucci, less is definitely more.

]]>http://www.eijnews.org/2017/09/08/storytelling-with-just-your-phone/feed/0Virtual Tour of the J-Expo & Career Fairhttp://www.eijnews.org/2017/09/08/virtual-tour-of-the-j-expo-career-fair/
http://www.eijnews.org/2017/09/08/virtual-tour-of-the-j-expo-career-fair/#respondFri, 08 Sep 2017 19:38:48 +0000http://www.eijnews.org/?p=4928Take a virtual tour of the J-Expo at EIJ 17. Organizations included in this interactive 360 Story Spheres video include at Bloomberg, CBS, NBC, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, RIAS Berlin, SAGA AFTRA and Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism.

]]>Take a virtual tour of the J-Expo at EIJ 17. Organizations included in this interactive 360 Story Spheres video include at Bloomberg, CBS, NBC, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, RIAS Berlin, SAGA AFTRA and Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism.

]]>http://www.eijnews.org/2017/09/08/virtual-tour-of-the-j-expo-career-fair/feed/0Want better coverage? Learn how to listen to audiences more effectivelyhttp://www.eijnews.org/2017/09/08/want-better-coverage-learn-how-to-listen-to-audiences-more-effectively/
http://www.eijnews.org/2017/09/08/want-better-coverage-learn-how-to-listen-to-audiences-more-effectively/#respondFri, 08 Sep 2017 18:26:21 +0000http://www.eijnews.org/?p=4777There are more effective ways for journalists to use social media, especially when it comes to listening and interacting with audiences.

The technology to improve our social media ways is out there — it’s just a matter of knowing what it is and how to use it, said Banjo‘s director of media innovation Victor Hernandez during a breakout session on Thursday. Joined by Carrie Brown, the social journalism director at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, the duo discussed the ins and outs of social discovery and the importance of being audience-centric. Continue reading

]]>There are more effective ways for journalists to use social media, especially when it comes to listening and interacting with audiences.

The technology to improve our social media ways is out there — it’s just a matter of knowing what it is and how to use it, said Banjo‘s director of media innovation Victor Hernandez during a breakout session on Thursday. Joined by Carrie Brown, the social journalism director at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, the duo discussed the ins and outs of social discovery and the importance of being audience-centric.

“So much happens in an Internet minute,” Hernandez said. “Using the right tools, social discovery allows you to specify the information you’re looking for on social media and uncover things you might not be able to do otherwise.”

What is social discovery?

Social discovery is like finding the important needles in giant digital haystacks, Hernandez said. From tweets to Facebook posts to photos people post online, there’s more content to sift through online than ever before, he added.

“This is why social discovery is so important. You have to be able to filter through it all and find exactly what you’re looking for,” Hernandez said. “It’s something everyone in the newsroom can do — it shouldn’t just be a couple people at the digital desk.”

Numerous tools to assist with social discovery are available, including Banjo, Tweetdeck, Tweeten and CrowdTangle.

‘Give me an example’

During the 2016 Presidential Election, newsrooms across the country — including the student newsroom at CUNY — participated in the Electionland Project, which tracked and covered voting problems across the country in real time.

Brown, who assisted students with the project, said the team used social media to find instances of problems at voting stations. By using keywords and focused searches within social media feeds, reporters were able to identify potential issues and further verify what they found.

“It was a great collaborative effort between newsrooms across the country, but it was also a great example of what can be done with social discovery tools,” Brown said.

What about smaller newsrooms?

Time is always a challenge for social discovery projects, Brown said, but reporters should be able to monitor social media related to their beat on a daily basis: “It’s not easy for smaller newsrooms, but it can be done.”

Collaborative projects between newsrooms can also be helpful, she said. By combining forces between smaller staffs, specific stories or audience engagement goals can be easier accomplished.

“There’s always going to be a lot of customization to this,” Brown said. “It takes time, and that’s important to keep in mind.”

Brown added that journalism schools need to spend more time focusing on social media methods in the classroom so early career journalists are better-equipped to to utilize social discovery techniques in their work.

Using the comment sections

In addition to strategically navigating social media threads for specific pieces of information, Brown said it’s important that journalists also keep in mind that social media is a place for interacting with audiences.

Comment sections today are filled with hateful rhetoric and negativity, Brown said: “I think the reason they started getting so terrible is because for years, we were ignoring them.”

By participating in the comment sections and answering questions raised by audience members on stories, Brown said it’s more likely that journalists can gain more public trust and identify other potential stories in their communities.

Getting the most out of what you’re doing

In addition to using digital tools like Tweetdeck or Banjo, newsrooms should also consider interacting with their audiences outside of the digital realm, Hernandez said.

By attending community events, setting up listening posts and holding public forums, journalists can identify stories that they wouldn’t otherwise have been aware of.

“Listening to audiences offline will help you navigate social media better online,” Hernandez said. “Social discovery helps you tailor your approach to the community you hope to reach, and getting to know your audiences better helps this process to be even more effective.”

]]>http://www.eijnews.org/2017/09/08/want-better-coverage-learn-how-to-listen-to-audiences-more-effectively/feed/0Pressing Issues: What Makes A Great Podcast?http://www.eijnews.org/2017/09/08/pressing-issues-what-makes-a-great-podcast/
http://www.eijnews.org/2017/09/08/pressing-issues-what-makes-a-great-podcast/#respondFri, 08 Sep 2017 19:54:54 +0000http://www.eijnews.org/?p=4998For this episode, we ask the question: what does it take to make a great podcast, and where do you even start? EIJ News reporter Tabitha Redder spoke with Felix Contreras, host of Alt.Latino, about the do’s and don’t’s of pro podcasting.

When Contreras started the podcast seven years ago, he focused on Latin alternative, rock and hip-hop music. The podcast has transitioned into interviews with writers, novelists, actors, musicians, and poets who talk about arts and culture and even politics.

http://www.eijnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/podcastingfinal01wav.wav
]]>http://www.eijnews.org/2017/09/08/pressing-issues-what-makes-a-great-podcast/feed/0360 degrees of EIJ17’s Opening Night Receptionhttp://www.eijnews.org/2017/09/08/360-degrees-of-eij17s-opening-night-reception/
http://www.eijnews.org/2017/09/08/360-degrees-of-eij17s-opening-night-reception/#respondFri, 08 Sep 2017 17:16:30 +0000http://www.eijnews.org/?p=4924CNN hosted the opening night ceremony for the 2017 Excellence in Journalism Conference with an evening of food and bowling at Bowlmore Lanes! Here are some 360 photos shot with a Ricoh Theta camera, courtesy of Google News Lab. For the best experience, view these 360 images on your smart phone.

]]>http://www.eijnews.org/2017/09/08/360-degrees-of-eij17s-opening-night-reception/feed/0SPJ delegates to vote on bylaw changehttp://www.eijnews.org/2017/09/08/spj-delegates-to-vote-on-bylaw-change/
http://www.eijnews.org/2017/09/08/spj-delegates-to-vote-on-bylaw-change/#respondFri, 08 Sep 2017 10:10:45 +0000http://www.eijnews.org/?p=4876Significant changes may be on the horizon for the Society of Professional Journalists by the conclusion of the Excellence in Journalism Conference.

SPJ established a Governance Task Force to analyze the organizational structure of the society’s board of directors and to suggest improvements. The result of their findings is a proposed bylaw change that delegates will vote for or against at this Saturday’s business meeting.

Patti Newberry, who serves as the Governance Task Force chair, said the bylaw change focuses on restructuring the organization, downsizing positions and streamlining communication over a period of three-to-five years.

“The proposal calls for reducing the board from 23 to nine, and as part of that, the regional directors would be removed from the board,” she said.

This means regional directors, now called regional coordinators, would lose the ability to cast votes at the board of directors level.

“The philosophy is the world is a very small place with constant contact through electronic means and that the geographic representational model really is no longer very relevant,” Newberry said. “Where you come from really does not matter as much as it once did.”

Newberry said trimming the board size will be more efficient and productive for the organization.

“I would say the bigger issue here is not to kick off the regional directors. It’s nothing punitive at all,” she said. “The wider goal here is to have a smaller and more strategically focused board. With 23 members, it becomes very difficult to stay on track, to move forward in unison.”

The bylaw proposal also includes an additional two at-large seats that could be filled with regional coordinator positions.

In addition to this bylaw change, the Press Club of Long Island is pushing an amendment to the proposal citing lack of representation at the national level.

Bill Bleyer, treasurer and former president of the PCLI, said his chapter does support the bylaw proposal but they want to tweak the document.

“If they keep one of the regional coordinators on the board in one way or another, it ensures the chapters will have a voice and that the regional coordinators won’t be receiving or making recommendations that the board can ignore,” he said. “Only board members get to vote on national policy so I want to make sure one of the regional coordinators is on the board with a vote.”

The Governance Task Force that proposed the initial bylaw change does not support PCLI’s amendment.

“We feel like if the new board follows our recommendation to create these lines of communication, that will take care of itself, that there will be a voice for regions and importantly the chapter,” Newberry said.

Members will cast their votes at the SPJ business meeting, 2:30 p.m. Sept. 9 in the Platinum 5 Ballroom.

Jane Elizabeth of the American Press Institute presenting reasons why there is a lack of trust in media

Journalists are trying to find a way to reverse the public mistrust of the media. That was the focus of one panel at the Excellence in Journalism Conference in Anaheim.

Jane Elizabeth of the American Press Institute says this distrust affects the bottom line for every news organization. She presented her formula for mistrust of media: “I don’t know + I don’t understand you = I don’t trust you.”

“People who trust you as an organization are more likely to buy that organization’s app, pay for subscriptions, subscribe to newsletters and follow on social media,” Elizabeth said. Continue reading

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Jane Elizabeth of the American Press Institute presenting reasons why there is a lack of trust in media

Journalists are trying to find a way to reverse the public mistrust of the media. That was the focus of one panel at the Excellence in Journalism Conference in Anaheim.

Jane Elizabeth of the American Press Institute says this distrust affects the bottom line for every news organization. She presented her formula for mistrust of media: “I don’t know + I don’t understand you = I don’t trust you.”

“People who trust you as an organization are more likely to buy that organization’s app, pay for subscriptions, subscribe to newsletters and follow on social media,” Elizabeth said. That’s a strong incentive to change ingrained habits.

Matthew Hall, editorial and opinion director at the San Diego Union-Tribune and SPJ Region 11 director, attended the panel and said the outbreak of fake news needs to be addressed. Hall said he thought the panel provided good insight.

“Journalists need to listen to people and not to be dismissive when someone says, ‘You’re fake news.’ or ‘That’s fake news.’ and be defensive about it,” Hall said. “We really need to tell people ‘no, this is how we are telling a news story accurately and truthfully’ and have the infrastructure to back it up.”

At a time of intense political divide in the country, Society of Professional Journalists Ethics Chair Andrew Seaman said media consumption habits have changed from the 1950s when television became a dish on the media diet of regular Americans. He said back then things were more structured. There was a limited selection of media with strong editorial processes behind it: the morning paper, a magazine, the evening broadcast.

“Now we have everything all the time,” Seaman said. He added the media did a bad job at preparing audiences in adapting to a new environment of 24/7 news cycles, blogs and social media. Seaman said he spoke to the pollsters behind Pew, Gallup, the American Society of News Editors among others to seek the deeper reason why people don’t trust the media. He said he believes the new media landscape has overwhelmed the public.

Matthew Broughton, a senior broadcast journalism major at Fresno State, agreed with the panelists when they said everyone on Twitter or Facebook thinks he’s a newsperson or journalist. “The most important thing I got from the panel was that people trust more the sharer [of information] than the publisher [of news].”

Sally Lehrman of The Trust Project said the public wants to participate in the news process. For example, if the Latino, immigrant or LGBT communities aren’t represented in a story, they have no reason to read or watch that story. She said getting reporters and producers involved in the community to create stronger relations and regain trust is one solution.

Rebecca Baker, SPJ’s incoming president and deputy head of news for The New York Daily News says she will promote the issue of outreach in the community. She said having journalists speak directly to the people by meeting with community groups, holding public discussions and going into schools to speak to students is essential for the public to see the human face behind the stories.

“The more SPJ and other journalism organizations can promote and foster that, the more we’ll take to regaining the trust of the public,” Baker said about the idea of community outreach.

Elizabeth said helping the audience understand the process of creating news goes hand-in-hand with the notion that a lack of understanding breeds mistrust. Having citations and references linked to government data and other sources used in a story helps regain that trust.

“It’s common sense, but having your bio list your credentials, not how many kids you have is a small thing,” Hall said. “But that’s just one way of how we can teach our readers that we are in this for the right reasons and know what we’re talking about.”

Incorporating components of best practices in your company is yet another solution, Lehrman says. An ethics policy, a commitment to diversity, transparency in ownership structure, funding and grants, a mission statement all help the audience understand the process of a news organization. Letting the public know the organization’s policy on the use of unnamed sources in a story is also important.

Finally, Lehrman said actionable feedback, such as allowing comments or a direct line of communication to the newsroom augments public engagement, which is also something that affects a newsroom’s bottom line.

Toni Albertson chats with Robert Hernandez after their panel discussion on journalism education. While both have had very different academic experiences, they share a common link in leaving traditional teaching methods behind.

In the digital age, journalism is an constantly-changing industry. Even more fluid, however, is journalism education. Across the country, professors and instructors are struggling to keep up with the changing landscape and find ways to incorporate new technology and tools in the classroom.

At the 2017 Excellence in Journalism Conference, a breakout session entitled, “Speed Dating: Great Ideas in Journalism Education,” tackled those concerns. Educators offered tips and advice on how to spice things up at school with one common theme: break out of the conventional idea of teaching journalism.

Try Something New

While it might sound simple, the first step in making change is accepting the idea of change. Toni Albertson teaches at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, Calif. and advises the school’s student media. She encouraged an open mind when considering breaking old habits.

Albertson said when she began teaching at Mt. SAC in 2006, the journalism program faced low enrollment, and student publications had low readership. She led student media in a new direction — the publications moved online, no longer in print. Other initiatives included a hyperlocal news site on Twitter and a partnership with the Washington Post.

“Throw out what doesn’t work and try something different,” Albertson said. “Be prepared for anything.”

That includes failing, she explained. There were several projects that student media attempted that didn’t succeed or needed to be fine-tuned, and even those offered important lessons. Albertson’s final piece of advice encouraged trial and error.

“Don’t listen to the haters,” she said. “[And] never be a ‘Debbie Downer.’”

Ditch the Classroom

Julie Jones, a multimedia journalism professor at Gaylord College, discussed the benefits of collaboration outside of journalism. Jones teaches her class, “Gaylord 360,” with Debbie Yount, who oversees the advertising and public relations fields at the college.

“It is a chance to merge with different sides of the college and learn off each other,” Jones said.

While the advertising and journalism professions have had a difficult relationship for years, the Gaylord College partnership opens more doors for students to see how their fields are connected. Each semester, Jones explained, the class chooses an issue in the community and focuses a campaign on that subject. In the spring, the class worked with the non-profit Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma.

“We created a campaign to bust the myths of food insecurity,” Jones said.

In addition to bringing several industries together, the goal of the class is also to highlight experiential learning.

“How can we give students real-life experiences classroom-by-classroom, project-by-project?” Jones asked. “We’re trying to find ways to bring real-world problems into the classroom.”

An easy way to solve that problem was to ditch the idea of a “classroom.” The students and professors meet every week in the field, which Jones referred to as “storytelling without walls.”

Put the Audience First

Carrie Brown is the director of the social journalism master’s program at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. Brown helped spearhead the effort to create the master’s program, which launched in 2015. Social journalism, Brown explained, puts the audience at the center of every story.

“As a teacher I think you always feel like you have to be an expert on everything, but things are moving so fast in terms of the tools,” Brown said. “If we’re going to keep journalism alive, we really need to figure out how to make it in a way that other people find relevant.”

In the master’s program, students choose a community to serve with their journalism, whether that is a geographic or demographic community. The goal is to shift the focus from what the journalist wants to write to what the audience wants to read.

“You have to think about things like building relationships,” Brown said.

Embrace the Unknown

Robert Hernandez is an associate professor of professional practice at USC Annenberg, and he takes a special interest in exploring new technology with his students. Often, that means Hernandez doesn’t know much about the tools his class might be using for a semester.

“I embrace the fact that I don’t know what I’m doing,” Hernandez said. “Embracing that and building that into the culture of the classroom, where we’re teaching each other and learning together, to me, is part of the secret sauce.”

In his classes, Hernandez’s students have explored 360 video production, Google Glass, augmented reality and virtual reality. The students have their own brand under which they produce VR experiences, called JoVRnalism, which has been featured on YouTube 360 and has reached as many as 182,000 views.

“It’s an incredible opportunity to define the first drafts of virtual reality journalism or augmented reality journalism in your classroom together,” he said.

This opportunity arises through experimenting within the parameters of a classroom and a willingness to step outside the box — sometimes into completely new territory.

“From what I’ve learned,” Hernandez said, “experiment and ask for forgiveness instead of permission. Find loopholes to make this stuff happen.”

As many Excellence in Journalism attendees chatted with conference exhibitors, attended breakout sessions and mingled with like-minded colleagues, a select group of students and young media professionals rubbed elbows with NBC executives, who in turn critiqued their scripts and offered career advice.

Centered around the Fourth Estate, or journalism as a tool to hold the three branches of government accountable, the NBCUniversity workshop paired groups of new and upcoming journalists with NBC producers and reporters. Continue reading

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Students break the ice with CNBC reporter Bertha Coombs, second left.

As many Excellence in Journalism attendees chatted with conference exhibitors, attended breakout sessions and mingled with like-minded colleagues, a select group of students and young media professionals rubbed elbows with NBC executives, who in turn critiqued their scripts and offered career advice.

Centered around the Fourth Estate, or journalism as a tool to hold the three branches of government accountable, the NBCUniversity workshop paired groups of new and upcoming journalists with NBC producers and reporters.

The workshop also paired writing analysis with serious conversation about the current political climate and the negative perception the public has of the news media.

“We’re facing a lot of challenges as it relates to the Fourth Estate,” said Yvette Miley, senior vice president for MSNBC and NBCUniversal. “What are the principles that we stand on? What are the values that we have as journalists? What things do we need to do to stick to as journalists as we face other challenges?”

Greg Dawson, vice president of news at NBC 7 San Diego, was one of more than 10 NBC news managers who critiqued the attendees’ work. For him, the session is a brainstorming opportunity for both attendees and facilitators.

“What’s always neat for me is to see the different things that they see in the story that I may not have seen when I watched the video and different ways that I may not have written it,” Dawson said.

The participants were selected through a competitive application process. Prior to arriving at the conference, they were asked to write a news package from video, interviews and a fact sheet. At the conference, TV news professionals critiqued their work, and then students compared their stories to NBC News correspondent Harry Smith’s original story.

Students also listened to a panel of news executives discuss the public’s terse relationship with the media, and students mingled with their new colleagues at a post-workshop mixer.

Sergio Martinez-Beltrán, a senior print journalism major from Michigan State University, said he applied for NBCUniversity to find different ways to tell stories.

“I think as journalists, we’re trying to learn and improve as storytellers,” he said. “Coming to a workshop like NBCUniversity definitely helps you improve and definitely helps you become a better journalist and helps you connect better with your audience.”

Students confer with an NBC journalist.

Martinez-Beltrán trained with Dawson, who stressed to his pupils the importance of focusing on one topic and having “the courage” to keep on track with the original topic.

“Everbody brings their own sensibility and ideas,” Dawson said. “That’s part of my message at least. There are different ways to write a story, and there’s no right or wrong.”

NBC has hosted its educational workshop at other conferences such as the Asian American Journalists Association. The work shop, in its third year of existence, was conceived as a method for NBC officials to form more intimate relationships with attendees.

“That gives us the opportunity to get closer with potential job candidates to make it an educational opportunity for them to learn a little bit about us and also for us to learn about them,” Miley said.

Cameron Sadeghi, a sophomore Saddleback College student and intern for the Orange County Register, said the event especially helped him as a journalist by exposing him to new opinions.

“We as younger people have our own little perspectives,” Sadeghi said. “If we don’t ask older people about their perspectives, then we won’t have a complete view of journalism.”

]]>http://www.eijnews.org/2017/09/08/nbc-news-directors-give-feedback-to-students-professionals-in-day-long-workshop/feed/0A Guide to Covering Violence in Indian Countryhttp://www.eijnews.org/2017/09/07/a-guide-to-covering-violence-in-indian-country/
http://www.eijnews.org/2017/09/07/a-guide-to-covering-violence-in-indian-country/#respondFri, 08 Sep 2017 03:21:34 +0000http://www.eijnews.org/?p=4766Four out of five Native Americans have experienced violence in their lifetimes, according to the National Institute of Justice (NIJ). That’s why members of the Native American Journalists Association wanted to bring attention to domestic violence and sexual assault in tribal communities.

During a Thursday afternoon session at this year’s Excellence in Journalism Conference, Princella RedCorn, communications officer at the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center; Mallory Black, communications manager at StrongHearts Native Helpline; and Mary Hudetz, a criminal justice reporter for the Associated Press, shared important tips and resources journalists should consider when reporting on violence and abuse in Indian Country. Continue reading

]]>Four out of five Native Americans have experienced violence in their lifetimes, according to the National Institute of Justice (NIJ). That’s why members of the Native American Journalists Association wanted to bring attention to domestic violence and sexual assault in tribal communities.

During a Thursday afternoon session at this year’s Excellence in Journalism Conference, Princella RedCorn, communications officer at the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center; Mallory Black, communications manager at StrongHearts Native Helpline; and Mary Hudetz, a criminal justice reporter for the Associated Press, shared important tips and resources journalists should consider when reporting on violence and abuse in Indian Country.

“Being up front and knowledgeable with those you want to interview is crucial,” Hudetz said. “This is about building trust with the community. If you mess up or you aren’t having conversations with the source about how the story could affect them, that could be really upsetting for them, and distrust spreads fast. If you handle that correctly, though, you will have more sources from that community and the ability to report further.”

In addition to providing ways to carefully interview survivors, speakers also presented journalists with information that can help news stories become more contextual, including government sites like GovTrack.us and document databases such as PACER.

Millions of Native women, men and children across the country directly experience physical, sexual, mental, emotional abuse and threats of violence in their intimate relationships, according to the NIJ. One of the most important things reporters can do in their stories, besides reporting the news itself, is providing factual, statistical information in their work, Hudetz said. “There’s still a broken system in place, and context is so important for these stories.”

Moving forward, Black said she would like to see victims and survivors obtain better access to the resources they need in addition to more legislation changes that will make it harder for offenders to get away with crimes in Indian Country and against Native women and children.

“We have this reality right now that things are bleak, but the hope is that we will dig into some more solutions,” Black said. “We’re seeing some signs of progress, and I think sharing stories and resources will help move things forward even more.”

“People feel that we are taking jobs from people — that we are leeching on the government when, in fact, we pay taxes. I pay taxes. A lot of the money from my paycheck goes into social security and a lot of other benefits that I don’t qualify for.” – America Arias, Freelance Producer for ABC Los Angeles & Undocumented Immigrant. Photo by Elena Marie Piech

The Trump administration’s attempt to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program impacts approximately 800,000 undocumented people in the U.S. but it’s also a threat for journalists who are also undocumented.

Journalists need to be mindful and aware of who they’re talking to and how they’re talking to them. It’s also crucial to address the economic impact when it comes to working with immigrant communities.

For this episode of Pressing Issues, three reporters share their thoughts on covering immigration from avoiding misconceptions to the risks involved in working with undocumented sources.

The slew of unknowns is risky for both undocumented people and reporters. So when it comes to reporting on undocumented communities — it’s a tricky subject.

Brandon Benavides, the President of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, spoke with our News Team about NAHJ’s decision to review its partnership with the California Chicano News Media Association. | Photo by: Elena Piech

A rift between two major Latino journalism organizations has postponed the presentation of the Ruben Salazar Journalism Award during the National Association of Hispanic Journalist’s annual awards luncheon.

Members of the California Chicano News Media Association were surprised to hear that board members of NAHJ announced a request to review the finances shared between the two organizations. Continue reading

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Brandon Benavides, the President of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, spoke with our News Team about NAHJ’s decision to review its partnership with the California Chicano News Media Association. | Photo by: Elena Piech

A rift between two major Latino journalism organizations has postponed the presentation of the Ruben Salazar Journalism Award during the National Association of Hispanic Journalist’s annual awards luncheon.

Members of the California Chicano News Media Association were surprised to hear that board members of NAHJ announced a request to review the finances shared between the two organizations. NAHJ and CCNMA partnered together when a memorandum of understanding, was signed in March of 2016.

In an email sent Wednesday, Brandon Benavides, the NAHJ president, said he requested the MOU because board members wanted to review the financial and legal liabilities of the merger. Benavides sent the e-mail to Joseph Rodriguez, the president of CCNMA, and Mekahlo Medina, a former NAHJ president and one of the main architects of the requested MOU.

“The board of directors decided to move into a 30-day negotiation period with an eye toward terminating the MOU if we cannot come to an agreement over our concerns during that period,” Benavides wrote in his email to Rodriguez and Medina. “We plan to make a good-faith effort to work out our issues, as the MOU clause states, and we hope CCNMA will join us in doing so. Otherwise, we will have to terminate the agreement on Oct. 6(.)

The board of directors is requesting a legal review of the MOU because we are concerned about our potential liability and the fact that this agreement wasn’t reviewed in advance by an attorney. The board of directors also requests CCNMA’s financial records as stated in the MOU and as we have requested since the agreement was signed. We also request CCNMA’s latest audit, if any exists.”

Rodriguez, who did not attend the 2017 Excellence in Journalism Convention, said he did not know reviewing the MOU would be brought up during the NAHJ executive board meeting. Originally he said he thought they would discuss the hiring of an administrative manager for the CCNMA office in Los Angeles.

“They haven’t been forthright or clear about some motives,” Rodriguez said. “That position was supposed to take place this year, but they said they weren’t sure they had the money but we wanted it budgeted in 2018. That remains our highest priority, we want that position filled.”

Page one of the six page binding memorandum of understanding between the California Chicano News Media Association and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

CCNMA sent their financial officer, Rachel Uranga, to this meeting. Medina said once Uranga made a statement about hiring an administrative manager, NAHJ began talking about reviewing the finances for both organizations.

“We exercised a clause in the MOU on the fourth page that says that we can request for a 30 day review in a good faith effort to come to an agreement,” Benavides said in an interview with the EIJ News Team. “And if not, after 30 days, that the MOU will be dissolved. So that is what we exercised. It is written in the MOU. What we want to do is we want to see what financial and legal liability NAHJ will have with this merger. We are asking for a legal review and we are also asking for CCNMA to send us their financial records.”

Confused by the reasoning provided by NAHJ, Rodriguez said the board members of NAHJ have not responded to his requests for comment and clarification.

“I don’t know exactly what they want us to do,” Rodriguez said. “They’re talking about an audit, but an audit by who? Do they want us to do our own audit? Do they want an expensive lawyer or moderator? Legally we are a chapter of NAHJ. I don’t know if NAHJ has ever done that to a chapter. I’m asking you these questions because they haven’t clarified their position. It is all very fake and accusatory.”

Medina said the decision announced last night has the potential to damage the relationship between the two organizations.

“The clause was beyond a last ditch effort,” Medina said. “It was the beginning of the end. You only implement that clause if you want to leave. You’re just giving the other organization due notice. You’re not really working with them to figure out the problem.”

Since a clear solution has not been reached, Rodriguez said that the CCNMA has canceled the awarding of their Ruben Salazar Journalism Award. Salazar was a Los Angeles Times Reporter and the first Mexican-American journalist to cover the Chicano movement for a mainstream outlet. The honorary award is now given to journalist who fairly cover issues impacting Latinos in California. The awards will be presented at a CCNMA event next month.

]]>http://www.eijnews.org/2017/09/07/nahj-and-ccnma-relationship-in-question/feed/0How to Launch a Drone News Programhttp://www.eijnews.org/2017/09/07/how-to-launch-a-drone-news-program/
http://www.eijnews.org/2017/09/07/how-to-launch-a-drone-news-program/#respondThu, 07 Sep 2017 22:48:28 +0000http://www.eijnews.org/?p=4860Drone operators, amateurs and news organizations are under stress to report news and exercise their first amendment rights while adhering to the law amid complaints from the public and police while covering disasters.

Michael Chambliss of the International Cinematographers Guild referred to the “democratization of airspace” as a complex process involving the FAA which has yet to definitively determine who is an official drone operator versus an amateur.

“Our patrol officers probably don’t have a whole lot of experience with this,” said Josh Rubenstein, Public Communications Officer for the Los Angeles Police Department, responding to a question about why to communicate with local law enforcement when filming drone footage for news. He says inform police before you start flying because they’re the ones who receive calls from the public.

“It’s up to [the LA Police Department] to make sure that the information gets out to our people about first amendment rights and how the laws work,” Rubenstein said.

Rubenstein also spoke to privacy issues and how communication between drone operators and news organizations could improve to avoid injury when covering stories or helping assist first responders in disasters.

“The FAA really hasn’t done anything about privacy concerning drone laws,” said Matt Waite, founder of Drone Lab Journalism. However, he says there are other ways news organizations are finding the freedom to cover events from above such as making drones smaller or tying them to news vans.

“But that’s what these devices for journalism were built for. They put perspective and context on any story,” Waite said.

Samaruddin Stewart, a SPJ Trainer for the Google News Lab partnership, led a Wednesday night workshop with members from SPJ, RTDNA, NAJA and NAHJ . Stewart works with SPJ to train journalists on the Google News Lab Research Tools.

“I think what is nice about the tools that we present is that they’re free,” Stewart said. “They’re fairly easy to use. I think that with immersive storytelling, no matter where you’re coming from, whether it be a newsroom or whether it be a university, the idea to give people more context to a situation I think works across the board.”

During the session, which Stewart referred to as “The Fundamental Track,” attendees had the chance to learn new techniques for traditional storytelling interspersed with methods of immersive storytelling. Some tools, such as Google Search, might be something newsrooms already use when verifying information. Other tools, such as Google Cardboard and 360 video, might be a new medium for journalists to explore.

“I don’t think I’ve been to a training where people have known every single tool we presented,” Stewart said. “I think there’s this great epiphany moment, for some people it’s one tool, for others it’s a different tool. But there is always something that people pull a value from this and I think that makes it all worth it.”

After using the Google Cardboard, Zara McDowell, a University of Missouri student and an RTDNA member, said she wants to integrate Google Maps’ 360 photo feature for future stories.

“I’m really hoping to use the 360 (photos),” McDowell said. “I don’t know how I would implement it yet. Probably at a really, really big event. Maybe like a festival or maybe like a state fair or something like that. Not a lot of newsrooms are using these tools right now, so if we start using them it is going to make us stand out and more people are going to watch us because we have a unique and different way of covering things.”

The Google Cardboard virtual reality headset gave attendees the chance to directly experience how Googles Maps and YouTube can be used as a tool for providing immersive contexts for stories.

“I think you probably recognized that when you put on that headset, that Google Cardboard and looked around, it gave you a better understanding of that location than any other still photo you’ve seen or any other potential video you’ve seen,” Stewart said. “You almost felt like that embodiment of being there. I think that’s something very special that journalists can figure out how to harness.”

Another tool that can be used to foster a sense of connection with readers and viewers was Google Translate. Attendees at the session were asked to download the Google Translate app. The app could be used to translate typed text, handwriting, a two-way conversation and text on an image. Stephanie Sandoval, a University of Missouri student and an RTDNA member, plans on using the map in her college town of Columbia, Missouri.

“I think (Google Translate) for me was the most helpful because where we come from we have a lot of diversity – Syrian refugees coming over – sometimes we don’t speak their language and this tool is kind of a way to get their voice because sometimes those people are less likely to get their voice heard,” Sandoval said. “So with this app, I think it is a great way for journalists to not only just reach the people that speak English but also the people that don’t speak the language.”

This session briefly covered the Google tools journalists can use to enhance their storytelling skills. For those who could not attend the session or are interested in seeking more information, Google News Lab provides free journalism lessons on g.co/newslab.

“We spent 90 minutes or so today, and people left with new tools to help tell stories,” Stewart said. “I think as long as journalists are evolving and the way that we are telling stories are evolving, it’s what the audience expects and it’s the way that we are going to keep up engagement.”

In a FacebookLive interview Wednesday night at the Excellence in Journalism conference in Anaheim, Seaman said journalists should describe controversial events as accurately as possible without labeling the participants.

In his August Quill article, “Ethics: Clarifying Terrifying Terms,” Seaman responded to comments on social media that reporters were avoiding the word “terrorism” when discussing events such as the attack on a Portland train in May. That attack led to the deaths of two men who tried to stop a man who was yelling anti-Islamic slurs at two young women.

Seaman says discussion over whether someone should be called a terrorist obscures what the story is about. He suggests reporters describe events as accurately as possible and avoid speculating about motivation.

Seaman will be joined by NBC news anchor Lester Holt for a FacebookLive Friday at 1 p.m. They’ll discuss journalism ethics and take questions submitted by Facebook users.

Looking to stand out at the EIJ17 Conference? News directors and recruiters have some advice to help journalists get their dream job.

If you're a broadcaster, resumes and reels are essential for this conference, but to stand out, recruiters say you must be able to sell yourself. Anjelicia Bruton talks with hiring managers to find out what they look for. Continue reading

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Looking to stand out at the EIJ17 Conference? News directors and recruiters have some advice to help journalists get their dream job.

If you're a broadcaster, resumes and reels are essential for this conference, but to stand out, recruiters say you must be able to sell yourself. Anjelicia Bruton talks with hiring managers to find out what they look for.

]]>http://www.eijnews.org/2017/08/08/making-an-impression-at-eij17/feed/0SPJ elects a new presidenthttp://www.eijnews.org/2016/09/29/spj-elects-a-new-president/
http://www.eijnews.org/2016/09/29/spj-elects-a-new-president/#respondFri, 30 Sep 2016 03:20:58 +0000http://www.eijnews.org/?p=4348“…As an officer of the Society, I hereby promise to uphold its ideals. I pledge myself to do all in my power, to perform faithfully the duties assigned to me, and to serve fellow journalists, whether of the Society or not. And so endeavor to enrich the profession with the ideals of the Society of Professional Journalists. This I promise and pleasure myself to perform.”

And with those words, Lynn Walsh of Columbus, Ohio, was crowned the new president of the Society of Professional Journalists. Continue reading

]]>“…As an officer of the Society, I hereby promise to uphold its ideals. I pledge myself to do all in my power, to perform faithfully the duties assigned to me, and to serve fellow journalists, whether of the Society or not. And so endeavor to enrich the profession with the ideals of the Society of Professional Journalists. This I promise and pleasure myself to perform.”

And with those words, Lynn Walsh of Columbus, Ohio, was crowned the new president of the Society of Professional Journalists. Members across all states voted in this election, making Walsh the 100th president elected to the organization’s highest post.

Her passion for journalism started in high school, after a school event had been canceled without any notice. Students were angry, and wanted to know what happened. A curious Walsh decided to ask “Why?”, and started searching for the answer. “A difference was made, a change was made that I think was better and more fair. So when I saw that, I was like, ‘This is what I want to do!’”

After a brief line producing job in Dayton, OH, Walsh’s career in journalism took her all around Ohio, and throughout the United States; from Texas to Florida to New York, to her current position in San Diego, CA, where she leads the investigative team at the NBC affiliate as lead executive producer. Walsh has been a member of SPJ since her college days at Ohio University, but after lapsing in her membership for a short time, she later rejoined and decided to get involved at the national level, through a national committee. “I became a leader of the committee, and it just kind of escalated from there. I just got sucked in and I didn’t want to leave; I wanted to keep helping.”

President Walsh plans to hit the ground running as SPJ’s new leader, speaking at various SPJ chapters throughout the country, and at summits—such as one dealing with the topic of domestic violence. “Those are the types of organizations we haven’t really reached out to but that care about media. We need to engage the public more, we need to engage non-journalists.” Other leading issues are FOIA, Ethics, and diversifying the Society of Professional Journalists. “We keep saying it, and keep saying it, [but] we’re not there yet. I want us to be there.” Walsh isn’t only thinking in terms of race and ethnicity, but in age and different groups that are involved as well.

As for her life back in San Diego, Walsh says she’s prepared for the increased workload. “You know, sometimes it can be a thankless job! I still have a full-time job; they’re very, very supportive, which I’m very grateful for, but it’s just gonna be a lot more work, but I’m excited!”

Every year residents and tourists gather in New Orleans to celebrate a well known tradition that takes place on the day before Ash Wednesday known as Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday. The holiday is filled with colorful costumes, masks, beads galore, and most importantly an amazing carnival celebration. The EIJ newsteam received a behind the scenes tour of Mardi Gras World, where several artists and craftsman are already hard at work for the next holiday.

The first thing you do when you go to Mardi Gras World is walk through the gift shop to watch a short video on the history of Mardi Gras. The room has two racks of costumes and hats for you to put on for any pictures you want to take before the film, and when you’re done you take a seat and enjoy watching the history of Mardi Gras floats. Did you know the first parade in New Orleans was in 1857?

We then move into the part of the building where the artists are at work creating the floats for next years Mardi Gras. The floats are made of either Styrofoam or Plexiglas and are recycled from past float sculptures. The floats were originally made out of cardboard until around 20-years-ago when they switched to Styrofoam to get a longer lasting product that they could reuse. When artists come up with a float they want to make they can either start from scratch or find an existing float and mold it into a different shape using various techniques. There is also a machine they use to get a more precise sculpture for their bigger products for companies such as Chic-fil-A and Disney.

]]>http://www.eijnews.org/2016/09/23/behind-the-scenes-of-next-years-mardi-gras/feed/0Gila River Indian Newshttp://www.eijnews.org/2016/09/23/gila-river-indian-news/
http://www.eijnews.org/2016/09/23/gila-river-indian-news/#respondFri, 23 Sep 2016 21:03:24 +0000http://www.eijnews.org/?p=4578Jennifer Loren, the host of Osiyo- Voices of the Cherokee People, tells the audience of Lens of Sovereignty, “you can do it for less,” when addressing the 30,000 dollar per episode budget her team has when producing their monthly magazine-style program. Gila River Indian News from Sacaton, Arizona is doing just that– producing short news videos that air online and on their local low power station with a minimal budget of $0.00. While Osiyo, funded by the Cherokee Nation, airs 30 minute documentary-style episodes on regional television stations as well as FNX-TV, relatively smaller communities are scaling back in cost and production while still covering important stories. Continue reading]]>Jennifer Loren, the host of Osiyo- Voices of the Cherokee People, tells the audience of Lens of Sovereignty, “you can do it for less,” when addressing the 30,000 dollar per episode budget her team has when producing their monthly magazine-style program. Gila River Indian News from Sacaton, Arizona is doing just that– producing short news videos that air online and on their local low power station with a minimal budget of $0.00. While Osiyo, funded by the Cherokee Nation, airs 30 minute documentary-style episodes on regional television stations as well as FNX-TV, relatively smaller communities are scaling back in cost and production while still covering important stories.

The Gila River Indian News team, composed of four members, publish a printed and online newspaper that covers 7 districts twice a month and are now pushing out 4-7 minute news reports, weekly. The news team managed to add video news to their repertoire without increasing any budget caps by not outsourcing production teams and instead working with 3-4 members of their community’s communication department to assist with camerawork and editing. The quickly evolving news team who transitioned from monthly newspapers to bi-monthly in 2013, added this video component within the last year and continue to grow from conferences such as EIJ16.

“I’ve been to other SPJ and NAJA conferences and this year’s is the most educational,” Mikhail Sundust, GRIN. Attending sessions such as Shield and Other laws in Indian Country, Native America and the Environment, Politics in Indian Country and non-Native news focused sessions as well allow for a variety of new knowledge and skill sets to be cultivated. With the shared space at this year’s Excellence in Journalism conference, Native journalists, such as Sundust and Roberto Jackson of GRIN, are finding that the breakout sessions, in their varied nature, are enriching their craft. Sundust, as a reporter on the tribal government owned newspaper, found the legal session (Shield) to be “the most eye-opening,” as it informed him on his rights to publish; he was also excited to attend the audio and visual critique to improve on the quality of their video news segments.

]]>http://www.eijnews.org/2016/09/23/gila-river-indian-news/feed/0From French Quarter Artist to Mad Scientist: How One French Quarter Artist Save His Businesshttp://www.eijnews.org/2016/09/23/from-french-quarter-artist-to-mad-scientist-how-one-french-quarter-artist-save-his-business/
http://www.eijnews.org/2016/09/23/from-french-quarter-artist-to-mad-scientist-how-one-french-quarter-artist-save-his-business/#respondFri, 23 Sep 2016 21:00:53 +0000http://www.eijnews.org/?p=4317Art has been a life long passion for Oscar Donahue, but when the company that provided the metallic resin needed to mold his wearable pieces of art Donahue had a choice, learn to make the material, or go out of business. Donahue’s pieces of art are bright metallic designs like Voodoo Dolls, Angels, and Mardi Gras mask have caught the eye of Market Place shoppers with their bold colors and sparkle since 1989. Building a business for 27 years was certainly a labor of love and Donahue knew he had to do whatever it took to make the material for his jewelry himself. Continue reading]]>Art has been a life long passion for Oscar Donahue, but when the company that provided the metallic resin needed to mold his wearable pieces of art Donahue had a choice, learn to make the material, or go out of business. Donahue’s pieces of art are bright metallic designs like Voodoo Dolls, Angels, and Mardi Gras mask have caught the eye of Market Place shoppers with their bold colors and sparkle since 1989. Building a business for 27 years was certainly a labor of love and Donahue knew he had to do whatever it took to make the material for his jewelry himself.

“It was my final option. I was like a mad scientist, up at three, four in the morning trying to figure out how to make the resin.” Donahue said

Donahue’s pins and earrings are made of a resin melded with metallic paper making for bright, unique jewelry that has become a staple cart in the French Market. Donahue would teach himself to boil a piece of resin for about 3 hours to soften it. He would then roll the resin out with a roller flat and melding the bright metallic paper that his art work is famous for. It took Donahue three months to learn to make the material himself but he got it.

” I am still here, everyday making my jewelry by hand during the day with the materials I taught myself to make at night.”